ne of voice, as if she feared to be overheard,--

"Do you not understand yet that I am no longer my own? Unfortunate as
I am, they have taken me, bound me, fettered me. I have no longer the
right to have a will of my own. If they say, 'Do this!' I must needs do
it. What a life I lead! Great God! Ah, if you had been willing, Daniel!
If you were willing even now!"

She became excited almost to exaltation; her eyes, moist with tears,
shone with matchless splendor; passing blushes colored her face; and her
voice had strange, weird vibrations.

Was she forgetting herself? Was she really about to betray her secret?
or was she merely inventing a new falsehood? Why should he not let her
go on?

"That is no answer, Miss Brandon," at last said Daniel. "Will you
promise me to protect Henrietta?"

"Do you really love her so dearly, your Henrietta?"

"Better than life!"

Miss Brandon turned as white as the lace on her dress; a flash of
indignation shot through her eyes; and, drying her tears, she said
curtly,--

"Oh!"

Then Daniel replied,--

"You will give me no answer, madam?"

And, as she persisted in her silence, he resumed,--

"Very well, then, I understand. You declare open war. Be it so! Only
listen to me carefully. I am setting out on a dangerous expedition, and
you hope I shall never return. Undeceive yourself, Miss Brandon; I shall
return. With a passion like mine, with so much love in one's heart, and
so much hatred, a man can defy every thing. The murderous climate will
not touch me; and, if I had ten rifle-balls in my body, I should still
have the strength to return, and hold you to an account for what you
have done to Henrietta. And if you have touched a hair on her head, if
you have made her shed a single tear, by all that is holy, it will bring
ill luck to you, and ill luck to others!"

He was going to leave her, when a thought struck him.

"I ought to tell you, moreover," he added, "that I leave a faithful
friend behind me; and, if the count or his daughter should die very
suddenly, the coroner will be informed. And now, madam, farewell--or,
rather, till we meet again!"

At eight o'clock on the evening of the next day, after having left in
M. de Brevan's hands a long letter for Henrietta, and after having given
him his last instructions, Daniel took his seat in the train which was
to take him to his new post.

XIII.

It was a week after Daniel's departure, a Wednesday, and about half-
p