range exalting peace.

Paul little dreamed the nature of the lady's prayers. Conscious of the
suddenly awakened love, which that feverish kiss had stirred to life
within her, she had come to the cathedral to seek for spiritual help.
She had felt the need of some higher will than her own to strengthen
her resolve to steel her heart against this fiery wooer. She was
filled with an almost irresistible longing to throw herself into his
arms and confess her quickening love. And that she knew too well she
must not do.

At last she lifted her bowed head, and rising slowly to her feet, she
genuflected before the altar. Then she turned and slipped through a
door of a small side chapel, into which the black-bearded man closely
followed. Paul's instinct was to follow, too, and, in the calm
security of a mind made up, he retraced his steps down the aisle.

He saw that it would be impossible for him to approach the side chapel
by the same way as the black-bearded stranger had, if he wished to
remain unobserved. So he turned aside and drew near to the chapel by
another way, sheltering himself behind the pillars, which cast deep
shadows on the floor.

Paul was following his old stalking habit, which he had acquired when
in pursuit of big game among the Rockies. Yet with all his care he
almost blundered into his quarry. For, as he moved silently round a
pillar, he became conscious that he was so near to the lady that he
could have stretched out his hand and touched her.

In an instant he drew back and stood still behind a massive column. He
could see nothing, but he could hear the voices of the girl and her
companion in low and earnest conversation.

At first it was the man who did most of the talking, and from what few
of his words he could catch Paul judged him to be speaking in French.
He droned on for some minutes, and then his voice died away.

Mademoiselle Vseslavitch now asked several questions in quiet, low
tones. The man answered sharply and incisively, and it seemed to Paul
that there was command in his voice.

For a while there was a complete silence, which at last was broken by
long, choking sobs. Edging a little farther round the pillar, Paul saw
the lady kneeling upon a _prie-dieu_ as though in an abandonment of
grief. She was crying as though her heart would break, her face
buried in her hands. The sombre man stood by like some tall shadow,
silent and unmoving.

A quick and great desire to go to her aid, to ga