t indeed you? Then God heard my prayers, and had pity on us."

"No, Valentine," he murmured. "God has had no pity."

The sad tones of Gaston's voice convinced her that her presentiment of
evil was true.

"What new misfortune strikes us now?" she cried. "Why have you thus
risked your life--a life far dearer to me than my own? What has
happened?"

"This is what has happened, Valentine: our love-affair is the jest of
the country around; our secret is a secret no longer."

She shrank back, and, burying her face in her hands, moaned piteously.

"This," said Gaston, forgetting everything but his present misery, "this
is the result of the blind enmity of our families. Our noble and pure
love, which ought to be a glory in the eyes of God and man, has to be
concealed, and, when discovered, becomes a reproach as though it were
some evil deed."

"Then all is known--all is discovered!" murmured Valentine. "Oh, Gaston,
Gaston!"

While struggling for his life against furious men and angry elements,
Gaston had preserved his self-possession; but the heart-broken tone of
his beloved Valentine overcame him. He swung his arms above his head,
and exclaimed:

"Yes, they know it; and oh, why could I not crush the villains for
daring to utter your adored name? Ah, why did I only kill two of the
scoundrels!"

"Have you killed someone, Gaston?"

Valentine's tone of horror gave Gaston a ray of reason.

"Yes," he replied with bitterness, "I have killed two men. It was for
that that I have crossed the Rhone. I could not have my father's name
disgraced by being tried and convicted for murder. I have been tracked
like a wild beast by mounted police. I have escaped them, and now I am
flying my country."

Valentine struggled to preserve her composure under this last unexpected
blow.

"Where do you hope to find an asylum?" she asked.

"I know not. Where I am to go, what will become of me, God only knows!
I only know that I am going to some strange land, to assume a false name
and a disguise. I shall seek some lawless country which offers a refuge
to murderers."

Gaston waited for an answer to this speech. None came, and he resumed
with vehemence:

"And before disappearing, Valentine, I wished to see you, because now,
when I am abandoned by everyone else, I have relied upon you, and had
faith in your love. A tie unites us, my darling, stronger and more
indissoluble than all earthly ties--the tie of love. I love you more
than life