“When peace was made, I returned to Boiscoran; and the countess gave no more signs of life now than before.  I began to feel reassured, and to recover possession of myself, when one day M. de Chandore invited me to dinner.  I went.  I saw Miss Dionysia.

“I had known her already for some time; and the recollection of her had, perhaps, had its influence upon my desire to quit the countess.  Still I had always had self-control enough to avoid her lest I should draw some fatal vengeance upon her.  When I was brought in contact with her by her grandfather, I had no longer the heart to avoid her; and, on the day on which I thought I read in her eyes that she loved me I made up my mind, and I resolved to risk every thing.

“But how shall I tell you what I suffered, Magloire, and with what anxiety I asked every evening when I returned to Boiscoran,—­

“‘No letter yet?’

“None came; and still it was impossible that the Countess Claudieuse should not have heard of my marriage.  My father had called on M. de Chandore, and asked him for the hand of his grand-daughter for me.  I had been publicly acknowledged as her betrothed; and nothing was now to be done but to fix the wedding-day.

“This silence frightened me.”

Exhausted and out of breath, Jacque de Boiscoran paused here, pressing both of his hands on his chest, as if to check the irregular beating of his heart.

He was approaching the catastrophe.

And yet he looked in vain to the advocate for a word or a sign of encouragement.  M. Magloire remained impenetrable:  his face remained as impassive as an iron mask.

At last, with a great effort, Jacques resumed,—­

“Yes, this calm frightened me more than a storm would have done.  To win Dionysia’s love was too great happiness.  I expected a catastrophe, something terrible.  I expected it with such absolute certainty, that I had actually made up my mind to confess every thing to M. de Chandore.  You know him, Magloire.  The old gentleman is the purest and brightest type of honor itself.  I could intrust my secrets to him with as perfect safety as I formerly intrusted Genevieve’s name to the night winds.

“Alas! why did I hesitate? why did I delay?

“One word might have saved me; and I should not be here, charged with an atrocious crime, innocent, and yet condemned to see how you doubt the truth of my words.

“But fate was against me.

“After having for a week postponed my confession every day to the next, one evening, after Dionysia and I had been talking of presentiments, I said to myself, ‘To-morrow it shall be done.’

“The next morning, I went to Boiscoran much earlier than usual, and on foot, because I wanted to give some orders to a dozen workmen whom I employed in my vineyards.  I took a short cut through the fields.  Alas! not a single detail has escaped from my memory.  When I had given my orders, I returned to the high road, and there met the priest from Brechy, who is a friend of mine.