d you not
know."

"I should say so--quite impossible."

"Then, be kind enough to tell me who she is. I have an important reason
for asking."

"My dear boy, I would tell you with all the pleasure in the world if I
knew."

"I have seen her." Caius spoke in a solemn voice.

The priest looked at him with evident interest and curiosity. "Well,
where was she, and who was she?"

"You must know: you are in Madame Le Maitre's confidence; you travel
from door to door, day in and day out; you know everybody and everything
upon these islands."

"I assure you," said the priest, "that I never heard of such a person."

CHAPTER XIII.

WHITE BIRDS; WHITE SNOW; WHITE THOUGHTS.

By degrees Caius was obliged to give up his last lingering belief in the
existence of the lady he loved. It was a curious position to be in, for
he loved her none the less. Two months of work and thought for the
diseased people had slipped away, and by the mere lapse of time, as well
as by every other proof, he had come to know that there was no maiden in
any way connected with Madame Le Maitre who answered to the visions he
had seen, or who might be wooed by the man who had ceased to care for
all other women for her sweet sake.

After Caius had arrived the epidemic had become worse, as it had been
prophesied it would, when the people began to exclude the winter air
from their houses. In almost every family upon the little isle there was
a victim, and Caius, under the compelling force of the orders which
Madame Le Maitre never gave and the wishes she never expressed, became
nurse as well as doctor, using what skill he had in every possible
office for the sick, working early and late, and many a time the night
through. It was not a time to prattle of the sea-maid to either Madame
Le Maitre or O'Shea, who both of them worked at his side in the battle
against death, and were, Caius verily believed, more heroic and
successful combatants than himself. Some solution concerning his
lady-love there must be, and Caius neither forgot nor gave up his
intention of probing the lives of these two to discover what he wished;
but the foreboding that the discovery would work him no weal made it the
easier to lay the matter aside and wait. They were all bound in the same
icy prison; he could afford patience.

The question of the hospital had been solved in this way. Madame Le
Maitre had taken O'Shea and his wife and children to live with her, and
such patie