e of
incredulity.

"Ah! I bade Fanchon tell you that in order to deceive her, not you! But
you know better, La Corriveau! It was not for the sake of paltry jewels
I desired you to come to the city to see me at this hour of midnight."

"I conjectured as much!" replied La Corriveau, with a sardonic smile
which showed her small teeth, white, even, and cruel as those of a
wildcat. "The jewel you have lost is the heart of your lover, and
you thought La Corriveau had a charm to win it back; was not that it,
Mademoiselle?"

Angelique sat upright, gazing boldly into the eyes of her visitor. "Yes,
it was that and more than that I summoned you for. Can you not guess?
You are wise, La Corriveau, you know a woman's desire better than she
dare avow it to herself!"

"Ah!" replied La Corriveau, returning her scrutiny with the eyes of a
basilisk; a green light flashed out of their dark depths. "You have a
lover, and you have a rival, too! A woman more potent than yourself,
in spite of your beauty and your fascinations, has caught the eye and
entangled the affections of the man you love, and you ask my counsel how
to win him back and how to triumph over your rival. Is it not for that
you have summoned La Corriveau?"

"Yes, it is that, and still more than that!" replied Angelique,
clenching her hands hard together, and gazing earnestly at the fire with
a look of merciless triumph at what she saw there reflected from her own
thoughts distinctly as if she looked at her own face in a mirror.

"It is all that, and still more than that,--cannot you guess yet why I
have summoned you here?" continued Angelique, rising and laying her left
hand firmly upon the shoulder of La Corriveau, as she bent her head and
whispered with terrible distinctness in her ear.

La Corriveau heard her whisper and looked up eagerly. "Yes, I know now,
Mademoiselle,--you would kill your rival! There is death in your eye,
in your voice, in your heart, but not in your hand! You would kill the
woman who robs you of your lover, and you have sent for La Corriveau to
help you in the good work! It is a good work in the eyes of a woman to
kill her rival! but why should I do that to please you? What do I care
for your lover, Angelique des Meloises?"

Angelique was startled to hear from the lips of another, words which
gave free expression to her own secret thoughts. A denial was on her
lips, but the lie remained unspoken. She trembled before La Corriveau,
but her reso