th," she said to
Gaston, raising her head, and looking him full in the face--"and I can
not survive this hour. Do not ask me to live--I can not live. I was
thinking, just now, as I sat and played the air we loved so well, that
I must, this very night, seek rest in death--for I suspected the truth
only a little while ago. But, love, this hour atones for much. You
know now how I loved you--how I remembered you. If I was dull of
apprehension--if, after seven years, I accepted too quickly the
deception practised on me--well, it was because I loved you so well.
But I must depart; there is no place on earth for me."

For answer Gaston kissed her tenderly.

"Would you leave me now?" he asked. "Have not I, too, loved you and
sought you? And shall not our happiness swallow up our misfortune, and
the crimes committed against us, after those crimes are avenged?"

Then, as calmly as a summer day, he placed Francezka in a chair, and,
turning to his brother, said:

"To-night, you or I must die."

"Agreed," replied Regnard.

He opened a cabinet in the room, took out several swords, and, handing
them to Gaston, said:

"Choose which one you will die by."

Gaston selected one.

"With this will I kill you," he said.

Neither of them had seen me, although I was in evidence plain enough.
I started forward, however, and grasping Gaston's arm, forced him to
look at me.

"Babache," he said, recognizing me instantly. "The world is not big
enough for my brother and for me. It is better to end it now and here.
Either let him kill me, or let me kill him; so I pray you, hands off;
and if I am the one to die, take care of Francezka."

I thought, too, that the world could not and ought not to hold them
both living, and the sooner it was settled which should die that
night, the better.

Francezka, meanwhile, sat quite still in the chair where she had been
placed. Gaston, turning to her, said, with an air of gentle command:

"Leave. This is no place for you."

"Stay!" cried Regnard violently. "You are to obey my commands, not
his."

Francezka, without looking toward Regnard, without a shudder or a
tremor, rose. I had thought she could neither rise nor move nor speak,
but there was not the least sign of weakness about her. She actually
stopped and curtsied toward Gaston as she went out. He bowed
ceremoniously in response.

I took her hand and led her out into the vast hall, dimly lighted. She
did not speak my name, but she held o