She had nothing to say of her unfitness, her unworthiness, to occupy the place to which he pointed.  Not a doubt, not a fear, had she to express.  He loved her, and that she knew; and she had no thought of depreciating his choice, its excellency or its wisdom.  Whatever excess of wonder she may have felt was not communicated.  How know I that she marvelled at her lover’s choice, though all the world might marvel?

Then remembering Mazurier, and thinking of her strength of faith, and her high-heartedness, he was eager that Jacqueline should appoint their marriage-day.  And more than he, perhaps, supposed was betrayed by this haste.  He made his words profoundly good.  Strong woman that she was, he wanted her strength joined to his.  He was secretly disquieted, secretly afraid to trust himself, since this defection of Martial Mazurier.

What did hinder them?  They might be married on Sunday, if she would:  they might go down together to the estate, which he must immediately visit.

Through the hurry of thought, and the agitation of heart, and the rush of seeming impossibilities, he brought out at length in triumph her consent.

She did consent.  It should all be as he wished.  And so they parted outside that town of Meaux on the fair summer evening.—­plighted lovers,—­hopeful man and woman.  For them the evening sky was lovely with the day’s last light; for them the serene stars of night arose.

So they parted under the open sky:  he going forward to the city, strengthened and refreshed in faith and holy courage; she, adorned with holy hopes which never until now had found place among her visions.  Neither was she prepared for them; until he brought them to a heart which, indeed, could never be dismayed by the approach and claim of love.

Love was no strange guest.  Fresh and fair as Zephyrus, he came from the forest depths, and she welcomed him,—­no stranger,—­though the breath that bore him was all heavenly, and his aspiration was remote from earthly sources.  Yes, she so imagined.

She went back to the cottage where she and Elsie lodged now, to tell Elsie what had happened,—­to thankfulness,—­to gazing forward Into a new world,—­to aspiration, expectation, joy, humility,—­to wonder, and to praise,—­to all that my best reader will perceive must be true of Jacqueline on this great evening of her life.

X.

That same night Victor Le Roy was arrested on charge of heresy,—­arrested and imprisoned.  Watchmen were on the look-out when the lover walked forward with triumphant steps to Meaux.

“This fellow also was among the wool-comber’s disciples,” said they; and their successful dealing with Mazurier encouraged the authorities to hope that soon all this evil would be overcome,—­trampled in the dust:  this impudent insurrection of thought should certainly be stifled; youth and age, high station, low, should be taught alike of Rome.