h anxiety, or it
might be with fear, "your ladyship will regret leaving here! You will
indeed! No harm would have happened to you. Madame d'O does not know
what she is doing, or she would not take you away. She does not know
what she is doing!" he repeated earnestly.

"Madame d'O!" cried the beautiful Diane, her brown eyes darting fire
at the unlucky culprit, her voice full of angry disdain. "How dare
you--such as you--mention my name? Wretch!"

She flung the last word at him, and the priest took it up. "Ay,
wretch! Wretched man indeed!" he repeated slowly, stretching out his
long thin hand and laying it like the claw of some bird of prey on the
tradesman's shoulder, which flinched, I saw, under the touch. "How
dare you--such as you--meddle with matters of the nobility? Matters
that do not concern you? Trouble! I see trouble hanging over this
house, Mirepoix! Much trouble!"

The miserable fellow trembled visibly under the covert threat. His face
grew pale. His lips quivered. He seemed fascinated by the priest's
gaze. "I am a faithful son of the church," he muttered; but his voice
shook so that the words were scarcely audible. "I am known to be such!
None better known in Paris, M. le Coadjuteur."

"Men are known by their works!" the priest retorted. "Now, now," he
continued, abruptly raising his voice, and lifting his hand in a kind
of exaltation, real or feigned, "is the appointed time! And now is the
day of salvation! and woe, Mirepoix, woe! woe! to the backslider, and
to him that putteth his hand to the plough and looketh back to-night!"

The layman cowered and shrank before his fierce denunciation; while
Madame de Pavannes gazed from one to the other as if her dislike for
the priest were so great that seeing the two thus quarrelling, she
almost forgave Mirepoix his offence. "Mirepoix said he could explain,"
she murmured irresolutely.

The Coadjutor fixed his baleful eyes on him. "Mirepoix," he said
grimly, "can explain nothing! Nothing! I dare him to explain!"

And certainly Mirepoix thus challenged was silent. "Come," the priest
continued peremptorily, turning to the lady who had entered with him,
"your sister must leave with us at once. We have no time to lose."

"But what what does it mean!" Madame de Pavannes said, as though she
hesitated even now. "Is there danger still?"

"Danger!" the priest exclaimed, his form seeming to swell, and the
exaltation I had before read in h