, and now he is coming
here. And Mademoiselle Rose will go telling him everything; and if she
tells him half what she has seen, your secret will be no secret to that
old man."

"My secret!" gasped Josephine, turning pale.

"Don't look so, madame: don't be frightened at poor Jacintha. Sooner or
later you MUST trust somebody besides Mademoiselle Rose."

Josephine looked at her with inquiring, frightened eyes.

Jacintha drew nearer to her.

"Mademoiselle,--I beg pardon, madame,--I carried you in my arms when I
was a child. When I was a girl you toddled at my side, and held my gown,
and lisped my name, and used to put your little arms round my neck, and
kissed me, you would; and if ever I had the least pain or sickness your
dear little face would turn as sorrowful, and all the pretty color leave
it for Jacintha; and now you are in trouble, in sore trouble, yet you
turn away from me, you dare not trust me, that would be cut in pieces
ere I would betray you. Ah, mademoiselle, you are wrong. The poor can
feel: they have all seen trouble, and a servant is the best of friends
where she has the heart to love her mistress; and do not I love you?
Pray do not turn from her who has carried you in her arms, and laid you
to sleep upon her bosom, many's and many's the time."

Josephine panted audibly. She held out her hand eloquently to Jacintha,
but she turned her head away and trembled.

Jacintha cast a hasty glance round the room. Then she trembled too at
what she was going to say, and the effect it might have on the young
lady. As for Josephine, terrible as the conversation had become, she
made no attempt to evade it: she remained perfectly passive. It was the
best way to learn how far Jacintha had penetrated her secret, if at all.

Jacintha looked fearfully round and whispered in Josephine's ear, "When
the news of Colonel Raynal's death came, you wept, but the color came
back to your cheek. When the news of his life came, you turned to stone.
Ah! my poor young lady, there has been more between you and THAT MAN
than should be. Ever since one day you all went to Frejus together, you
were a changed woman. I have seen you look at him as--as a wife looks at
her man. I have seen HIM"--

"Hush, Jacintha! Do not tell me what you have seen: oh! do not remind
me of joys I pray God to help me forget. He was my husband, then!--oh,
cruel Jacintha, to remind me of what I have been, of what I am! Ah me!
ah me! ah me!"

"Your husband!"