ugh life must have been the same; having gained
his confidence, I could never have deserted him while I lived. Each day
I have labored steadily; but often I have advanced so slowly that I
seemed to myself not to advance at all.

"I began by going to the pond to fish. We met daily. At first I did not
speak; I allowed him to become accustomed to my presence. It was a long
time before I even returned his glance of confused respect and
acquaintance as our boats passed near each other, for he had at once
recognized the priest. I built my foundations with exactest care and
patience, often absenting myself in order to remove all suspicion of
watchfulness or regularity from his continually suspicious mind; for
suspicion, enormously developed, is one of his few mental powers. I had
to make my way through its layers as a minute blood-vessel penetrates
the cumbrous leathern hide of the rhinoceros.

"I will not tell you all the details now; but at last, one morning, by a
little chance event, my long, weary, and apparently unsuccessful labor
was crowned with success. He became attached to me. I suppose in all his
poor warped life before no one had ever shown confidence in him or tried
to win his affection.

"The next step was not so difficult. I soon learned that he had a
secret. In his ignorant way, he is a firm believer in the terrors of
eternal punishment, and having become attached to me, I could see that
he was debating in his own mind whether or not to confide it to me as a
priest, and obtain absolution. I did not urge him; I did not even invite
his confidence. But I continued faithful to him, and I knew that in time
it would come. It did. You are right, Anne; he is the murderer.

"It seems that by night he is tormented by superstitious fear. He is not
able to sleep unless he stupefies himself with liquor, because he
expects to see his victim appear and look at him with her hollow eyes.
To rid himself of this haunting terror, he told all to me under the seal
of the confessional. And then began the hardest task of all.

"For as a priest I could not betray him (and I should never have done
so, Anne, even for your sake), and yet another life was at stake. I told
him with all the power, all the eloquence, I possessed, that his
repentance would never be accepted, that he himself would never be
forgiven, unless he rescued by a public avowal the innocent man who was
suffering in his place. And I gave him an assurance also, which