ne!" and Milady
twisted her arms as if in a paroxysm of grief.

Felton no doubt felt within himself that his strength was abandoning
him, and he made several steps toward the door; but the prisoner, whose
eye never left him, sprang in pursuit of him and stopped him.

"Sir," cried she, "be kind, be clement, listen to my prayer! That knife,
which the fatal prudence of the baron deprived me of, because he knows
the use I would make of it! Oh, hear me to the end! that knife, give it
to me for a minute only, for mercy's, for pity's sake! I will
embrace your knees! You shall shut the door that you may be certain I
contemplate no injury to you! My God! to you--the only just, good, and
compassionate being I have met with! To you--my preserver, perhaps! One
minute that knife, one minute, a single minute, and I will restore it
to you through the grating of the door. Only one minute, Mr. Felton, and
you will have saved my honor!"

"To kill yourself?" cried Felton, with terror, forgetting to withdraw
his hands from the hands of the prisoner, "to kill yourself?"

"I have told, sir," murmured Milady, lowering her voice, and allowing
herself to sink overpowered to the ground; "I have told my secret! He
knows all! My God, I am lost!"

Felton remained standing, motionless and undecided.

"He still doubts," thought Milady; "I have not been earnest enough."

Someone was heard in the corridor; Milady recognized the step of Lord de
Winter.

Felton recognized it also, and made a step toward the door.

Milady sprang toward him. "Oh, not a word," said she in a concentrated
voice, "not a word of all that I have said to you to this man, or I am
lost, and it would be you--you--"

Then as the steps drew near, she became silent for fear of being heard,
applying, with a gesture of infinite terror, her beautiful hand to
Felton's mouth.

Felton gently repulsed Milady, and she sank into a chair.

Lord de Winter passed before the door without stopping, and they heard
the noise of his footsteps soon die away.

Felton, as pale as death, remained some instants with his ear bent and
listening; then, when the sound was quite extinct, he breathed like a
man awaking from a dream, and rushed out of the apartment.

"Ah!" said Milady, listening in her turn to the noise of Felton's steps,
which withdrew in a direction opposite to those of Lord de Winter; "at
length you are mine!"

Then her brow darkened. "If he tells the baron," said she, "I am