She had forced an entry into his house; she had spied upon him, dogged him, lied to him.  The moment was too sudden, too awful for him to make even a wild guess at her motives.  His entire life, his whole past, the present, and the future, were all blotted out in this awful dispersal of his most cherished dream.  He had forgotten everything else save her appalling treachery; how could he even remember that once, long ago, in fair fight, he had killed her brother?

She did not even try now to hide her guilt.

A look of appeal, touching in its trustfulness, went out to him, begging him to spare her further shame.  Perhaps she felt that love, such as his, could not be killed in a flash.

His entire nature was full of pity, and to that pity she made a final appeal, lest she should be humiliated before Madame Deroulede and Anne Mie.

And he, still under the spell of those magic moments when he had knelt at her feet, understood her prayer, and closing his eyes just for one brief moment in order to shut out for ever that radiant vision of a pure angel whom he had worshipped, turned quietly to Anne Mie.

“Give me that paper, Anne Mie,” he said coldly.  “I may perhaps recognise the handwriting of my most bitter enemy.”

“’Tis unnecessary now,” replied Anne Mie slowly, still gazing at the face of Juliette, in which she too had read what she wished to read.

The paper dropped out of her hand.

Deroulede stooped to pick it up.  He unfolded it, smoothed it out, and then saw that it was blank.

“There is nothing written on this paper,” he said mechanically.

“No,” rejoined Anne Mie; “no other words save the story of her treachery.”

“What you have done is evil and wicked, Anne Mie.”

“Perhaps so; but I had guessed the truth, and I wished to know.  God showed me this way, how to do it, and how to let you know as well.”

“The less you speak of God just now, Anne Mie, the better, I think.  Will you attend to maman? she seems faint and ill.”

Madame Deroulede, silent and placid in her arm-chair, had watched the tragic scene before her, almost like a disinterested spectator.  All her ideas and all her thoughts had been paralysed, since the moment when the first summons at the front door had warned her of the imminence of the peril to her son.

The final discovery of Juliette’s treachery had left her impassive.  Since her son was in danger, she cared little as to whence that danger had come.

Obedient to Deroulede’s wish, Anne Mie was attending to the old lady’s comforts.  The poor, crippled girl was already feeling the terrible reaction of her deed.

In her childish mind she had planned this way, in which to bring the traitor to shame.  Anne Mie knew nothing, cared nothing, about the motives which had actuated Juliette; all she knew was that a terrible Judas-like deed had been perpetrated against the man, on whom she herself had lavished her pathetic, hopeless love.