ll any one assert that you are ignorant of all this? Would any
one believe who heard it? Will not the tale be rather circulated with
all its notes and comments? Will not men fill up every blank by the
devices of their own bad ingenuity? Will not some assert that you are a
partner in your own infamy, and that your fingers have touched the price
of your shame?"

"Stop!" cried Norwood. "Another word--one syllable more like this--and,
by the Heaven above us, your lips will never move again!"

"It would be a sorry recompense for my devotion to you, my Lord," said
the Abbe, with a profound sigh.

"Devotion!" repeated Norwood, in a voice of insulting sarcasm; "as if
I were to be tricked by this! Keep these artifices for some trembling
devotee, some bedridden or palsied worshipper of saintly relics and holy
legerdemain; I 'm not the stuff for such deceptions!"

"And yet, my Lord, what possible benefit can accrue to myself from this
ungracious task? With all your ingenuity, what personal gain can result
to me?"

"What care I for your motives, sir?" responded Norwood, fiercely. "I
only know that you had never incurred so critical a hazard without an
object. You either seek to exert a menace over me, or to be revenged on
_her_."

"Alas, my Lord, I see how little hope I should have of vindicating
myself before you. Your estimate of the Papists suggests nothing above
craft and dishonesty. You will not believe that human affections, love
of country, and all the other associations of a home, are strong in
hearts that beat beneath the serge frock of the priest. Still less do
you know the great working principle of our Faith,--the law which binds
us, for every unjust act we have done in life, to make an expiation in
this world. For many a year has my conscience been burdened with this
offence. But for my weak compliance with your request, I should never
have performed this ceremony. Had _I_ been firm, _you_ had been saved.
Nay, in my eagerness to serve you, I only worked your ruin; for, on
confessing to my Superior what I had done, he at once took measures to
ratify the act of marriage, and my rank as a deacon took date from the
day before the ceremony." D'Esmonde seemed not to notice the gesture of
indignation with which Norwood heard these words, but he went on: "It
is, then, to make some requital for this wrong, that I now risk all that
your anger may inflict upon me."

"Where is this woman?" cried Norwood, savagely, and as i