ittle abashed, "You
will tell me all? And if he would take her forth, give me alarm in the
room opposite yonder door, and stay them, and--"

"Stay them, holy Mother, at the price of my life. I have the honour of
her family in my hands."

She looked at me gravely, and I assumed a peasant openness of look and
honesty. She was deceived completely, and, without further speech, she
stepped to the door like a ghost and was gone. I never saw a human being
so noiseless, so uncanny. Our talk had been carried on silently, and I
had closed the panel quietly, so that we could not be heard by Alixe
or Doltaire. Now I was alone, to see and hear my wife in speech with
my enemy, the man who had made a strong, and was yet to make a stronger
fight to unseat me in her affections.

There was a moment's compunction, in which I hesitated to see this
meeting; but there was Alixe's safety to be thought on, and what might
he not here disclose of his intentions!--knowing which, I should act
with judgment, and not in the dark. I trusted Alixe, though I knew
well that this hour would see the great struggle in her between this
scoundrel and myself. I knew that he had ever had a sort of power over
her, even while she loathed his character; that he had a hundred graces
I had not, place which I had not, an intellect that ever delighted me,
and a will like iron when it was called into action. I thought for one
moment longer ere I moved the panel. My lips closed tight, and I felt a
pang at my heart.

Suppose, in this conflict, this singular man, acting on a nature already
tried beyond reason, should bend it to his will, to which it was, in
some radical ways, inclined? Well, if that should be, then I would go
forth and never see her more. She must make her choice out of her own
heart and spirit, and fight this fight alone, and having fought, and
lost or won, the result should be final, should stand, though she was
my wife, and I was bound in honour to protect her from all that might
invade her loyalty, to cherish her through all temptation and distress.
But our case was a strange one, and it must be dealt with according
to its strangeness--our only guides our consciences. There were no
precedents to meet our needs; our way had to be hewn out of a noisome,
pathless wood. I made up my mind: I would hear and see all. So I slid
the panel softly, and put my eyes to the tapestry. How many times did I
see, in the next hour, my wife's eyes upraised to this v