en, while the voice of
the serpent, as she thought, was ringing in her ears. Her limbs shook
under her--her brain reeled. All her hopes of success as a singer on the
stage Madame Strahlberg swept away, as not worth a thought. She told her
that, in her position, had she meant to be too scrupulous, she should
have stayed in the convent. Everything to Jacqueline seemed to dance
before her eyes. The evening closed around them, the light died out, the
landscape, like her life, had lost its glow. She uttered a brief prayer
for help, such a prayer as she had prayed in infancy. She whispered
it in terror, like a cry in extreme danger. She was more frightened
by Wanda's wicked words than she had been by M. de Talbrun or by M. de
Cymier. She ceased to know what she was saying till the last words, "You
have good sense and you will think about it," met her ear.

Jacqueline said not a word.

Wanda took her arm. "You may be sure," she said, "that I am thinking
only of your good. Come! Would you like to go into the Casino and look
at the pictures? No, you are tired? You can see them some evening. The
ballroom holds a thousand persons. Yes, if you prefer, we will go home.
You can take a nap till dinner-time. We shall dine at eight o'clock."

Conversation languished till they reached the Villa Rosa.
Notwithstanding Jacqueline's efforts to appear natural, her own voice
rang in her ears in tones quite new to her, a laugh that she uttered
without any occasion, and which came near resulting in hysterics. Yet
she had power enough over her nerves to notice the surroundings as she
entered the house. At the door of the room in which she was to sleep,
and which was on the first story, Madame Strahlberg kissed her with one
of those equivocal smiles which so long had imposed on her simplicity.

"Till eight o'clock, then."

"Till eight o'clock," repeated Jacqueline, passively.

But when eight o'clock came she sent word that she had a severe
headache, and would try to sleep it off.

Suppose, she thought, M. de Cymier should have been asked to dinner;
suppose she should be placed next to him at table? Anything in that
house seemed possible now.

They brought her a cup of tea. Up to a late hour she heard a confused
noise of music and laughter. She did not try to sleep. All her faculties
were on the alert, like those of a prisoner who is thinking of escape.
She knew what time the night trains left the station, and, abandoning
her trunk and eve