rand Dieu_! I had reaped an actor's reward, the
success of a counterfeit passion displayed at the cost of five francs
paid at the theatre door. I had drawn tears from her.

"'If I had known----' she said.

"'Do not finish the sentence,' I broke in. 'Even now I love you well
enough to murder you----'

"She reached for the bell-pull. I burst into a roar of laughter.

"'Do not call any one,' I said. 'I shall leave you to finish your life
in peace. It would be a blundering kind of hatred that would murder you!
You need not fear violence of any kind; I have spent a whole night at
the foot of your bed without----'

"'Monsieur----' she said, blushing; but after that first impulse of
modesty that even the most hardened women must surely own, she flung a
scornful glance at me, and said:

"'You must have been very cold.'

"'Do you think that I set such value on your beauty, madame,' I
answered, guessing the thoughts that moved her. 'Your beautiful face is
for me a promise of a soul yet more beautiful. Madame, those to whom
a woman is merely a woman can always purchase odalisques fit for the
seraglio, and achieve their happiness at a small cost. But I aspired
to something higher; I wanted the life of close communion of heart
and heart with you that have no heart. I know that now. If you were to
belong to another, I could kill him. And yet, no; for you would love
him, and his death might hurt you perhaps. What agony this is!' I cried.

"'If it is any comfort to you,' she retorted cheerfully, 'I can assure
you that I shall never belong to any one----'

"'So you offer an affront to God Himself,' I interrupted; 'and you
will be punished for it. Some day you will lie upon your sofa suffering
unheard-of ills, unable to endure the light or the slightest sound,
condemned to live as it were in the tomb. Then, when you seek the causes
of those lingering and avenging torments, you will remember the woes
that you distributed so lavishly upon your way. You have sown curses,
and hatred will be your reward. We are the real judges, the executioners
of a justice that reigns here below, which overrules the justice of man
and the laws of God.'

"'No doubt it is very culpable in me not to love you,' she said,
laughing. 'Am I to blame? No. I do not love you; you are a man, that is
sufficient. I am happy by myself; why should I give up my way of living,
a selfish way, if you will, for the caprices of a master? Marriage is a
sacrament by vir