ept
upon him? Your soul! I ask for it as a favour; but it is already
mine."

"No, sir," she says--her pride once more returning to her, even in so
dire a strait--"no, sir; that soul belongs to me, to my husband, to
our marriage rites."

"Ah, incorrigible little fool! you would struggle still, even now that
you are under the goad! I have seen your soul at all hours; I know it
better than you yourself. Day by day did I mark your first
reluctances, your pains, and your fits of despair. I saw how
disheartened you were when, in a low tone, you said that no one could
be held to an impossibility. And then I saw you growing more resigned.
You were beaten a little, and you cried out not very loud. As for me,
I ask for your soul simply because you have already lost it.
Meanwhile, your husband is dying. What is to be done? I am sorry for
you: I have you in my power; but I want something more. You must
grant it frankly and of free will, or else he is a dead man."

She answered very low, in her sleep, "Ah me! my body and my miserable
flesh, you may take them to save my husband; but my heart, never. No
one has ever had it, and I cannot give it away."

So, all resignedly she waited there. And he flung at her two words:
"Keep them, and they will save you." Therewith she shuddered, felt
within her a horrible thrill of fire, and, uttering a loud cry, awoke
in the arms of her astonished husband, to drown him in a flood of
tears.

* * * * *

She tore herself away by force, and got up, fearing lest she should
forget those two important words. Her husband was alarmed; for,
without looking even at him, she darted on the wall a glance as
piercing as that of Medea. Never was she more handsome. In her dark
eye and the yellowish white around it played such a glimmer as one
durst not face--a glimmer like the sulphurous jet of a volcano.

She walked straight to the town. The first word was "_Green_." Hanging
at a tradesman's door she beheld a green gown--the colour of the
Prince of the World--an old gown, which as she put it on became new
and glossy. Then she walked, without asking anyone, straight to the
door of a Jew, at which she knocked loudly. It was opened with great
caution. The poor Jew was sitting on the ground, covered over with
ashes. "My dear, I must have a hundred pounds."

"Oh, madam, how am I to get them? The Prince-bishop of the town has
just had my teeth drawn to make me say where my gold l