ntically; and Paul, although out in
the passage he could hear the sound of hurrying feet, could not
tear himself away from her dying embrace. A faint, curious smile was
parting her pallid lips, and her dim eyes seemed suddenly to have
caught a dim reflection of the light to come.

"Martin! Martin! there is a mist everywhere--but I see you, dear love!
Wait for me! Let us go hand in hand--hand in hand through the Valley
of the Shadow of Death. Oh, my love! it has been a weary, weary while.
Hold me tighter, Martin! I cannot feel your hand! Ah! at last, at
last! Farewell sorrow, and grief, and suffering! We are together once
more--a new world--behind the clouds! I am happy."

CHAPTER XXXV

"FROM OUT LIFE'S THUNDERS TO A STRANGE, SWEET WORLD"

She was dead, and, after all, her end had been crowned with peace.
She did not hear the door thrown roughly open, the swelling of angry
voices, or the fast-approaching tramp of many feet. Nor did Paul heed
any of these signs of coming danger; he had folded his strong arms
around her, and his lips, pressed close to her, seemed to draw the
last quivering breath from her frail body. It was only when her head
sunk back, and he knew that she was dead, that he laid her reverently
down and turned around.

The room was full of strange flashes of light and grotesque shadows
falling upon the white faces of half a dozen monks. Standing in front
of them was Father Andrew, and by his side was an old man, tall and
straight, with snow-white beard and hair. He stood in full glare of
a torch held by one of the monks behind him, and his face seemed like
the face of a corpse, save for the steady, malignant light in his
jet-black eyes. As Paul turned round, with his features suddenly
visible in a stream of lurid light, he raised his arm and pointed a
long, skinny finger steadily towards him.

"The son of the devil!" he cried, his deep, tremulous voice awakening
strange echoes in the high vaulted chamber. "Welcome! Welcome! Thrice
welcome!"

Paul straightened himself, and reverently laid the little white hand
which he had been clasping across the coverlet. "She is dead!" he said
solemnly. "What I came here to learn from you, I have learnt from her.
Let me go!"

He moved a step forward, but the old man remained there in the way,
motionless, and around the door were gathered a solid phalanx of
monks. Paul halted, conscious at once of his danger. The white faces
of the monks were all bent u