re had hated and hissed me, instead of
applauding?" I asked. "Would you still be proud of me, still care for
me?"

"I'd love you better, if there could be a 'better,'" he answered,
holding me very close.

"You know, dearest one, most beautiful one, that I'm a jealous brute. I
can't bear you to belong to others--even to the public that appreciates
you almost as much as you deserve to be appreciated. Of course I'm proud
that they adore you, but I'd like to take you away from them and adore
you all by myself. Why, if the whole world turned against you, there'd
be a kind of joy in that for me. I'd be so glad of the chance to face it
for you, to shield you from it always."

"Then, what _is_ there would make you love me less?" I went on, dwelling
on the subject with a dreadful fascination, as one looks over the brink
of a precipice.

"Nothing on God's earth--while you kept true to me."

"And if I weren't true--if I deceived you?"

"Why, I'd kill you--and myself after. But it makes me see red--a blazing
scarlet--even to think of such a thing. Why should you speak of it--when
it's beyond possibility, thank Heaven! I know you love me, or you
wouldn't make such noble sacrifices to save me from ruin."

I shivered: and I shall not be colder when they lay me in my coffin. I
wished that I had not looked over that precipice, down into blackness.
Why dwell on horrors, when I might have five minutes of happiness--perhaps
the last I should ever know? I remembered the piece of good news I had
for Raoul. I would have told him then, but he went on, saying to me so
many things sweet and blessed to hear, that I could not bear to cut him
short, lest never after this should he speak words of love to me.
Then--long before it ought, so it seemed--the clock in mydressing-room
struck, and I knew that I hadn't another instant to spare. On some first
nights I might have been willing to risk keeping the curtain down
(though I am rather conscientious in such ways), but to-night I wanted,
more than anything else, to have the play over, and to get home by
midnight or before, so that my suspense might be ended, and I might know
the worst--or best.

"I must go. You must leave me, dear," I said. "But I've some good news
for you when there's time to explain, and a great surprise. I can't give
you a minute until the last, for you know I've almost to open the third
and fourth acts. But when the curtain goes down on my death scene, come
behind again.