I learn from him. All our one
interview was spend in sneers that answered to my wild entreaties; but
this I know--that you would never have reached Tours a living man.'

'And now, now he is on the way to her!' cried Berenger, 'and you kept it
from me!'

'There lay my hope,' said Diane, raising her head; and now, with
glittering eyes and altered voice, 'How could I not but hate her who had
bereaved me of you; her for whose sake I could not earn your love?'

The change of her tone had, perhaps, warned the priest to draw nearer,
and as she perceived him, she said, 'Yes, father, this is not the way to
absolution, but my heart will burst if I say not all.'

'Thou shalt not prevail, foul spirit,' said the priest, looking
earnestly into the darkness, as though he beheld the fiend hovering
over her, 'neither shall these holy walls be defiled with accents of
unhallowed love. You have made your reparation, daughter; it is enough.'

'And can you tell me no more?' said Berenger, sadly. 'Can you give me no
clue that I may save her from the wolf that may be already on her track?
Cousin, if you would do this, I would bless you for ever.'

'Alas! I would if I could! It is true, cousin, I have no heart to
deceive you any longer. But it is to Madame de Quinet that you must
apply, and if my brother has though me worth pursuit, you may be in
time! One moment,'--as he would have sprung away as if in the impulse to
fly to the rescue,--'cousin; had you gone to England as I hoped, I
would have striven to deserve to win that love of yours, but you have
conquered by your constancy. Now, father, I have spoken my last save as
penitent.'

She covered her head and sank down again.

Berenger, bewildered and impelled to be doing something, let the priest
lead him out before he exclaimed, 'I said nothing to her of pardon!'

'You do pardon?' said the priest.

He paused a moment. 'Freely, if I find my wife. I can only remember
now that she set me on the way. I would ease her soul, poor thing, and
thinking would make me hard again.'

'Do the English bring up their sons with such feelings?' asked the cure,
pausing for a moment.

'Of course,' said Berenger. 'May I say that one word, sir?'

'Not now,' said the priest; 'she had better be left to think of her sin
towards Heaven, rather than towards man.'

'But do you leave her there, sir?'

'I shall return. I shall pray for her true penitence,' said the priest,
and Berenger perceived from hi