“Yes indeed!” she cried; and her voice was half choked with contending anger and despair, “I am his wife; and what then is she?  I tracked him here.  He is always away from me now.  I found a letter of hers signed with her name; she writes to him as if she loved him!  See!”

She flung upon the table a crumpled scrap of paper, and suddenly burying her face in her hands, burst into a torrent of passionate tears and sobs.  Noemi stood silent and watched her, terrified and wondering.  I closed the door softly, and approaching the unfortunate woman, laid my hand upon her shoulder.

“It is your husband who is alone to blame,” I whispered to her.  “Do not revile this innocent girl; she suffers quite as much as you do,—­perhaps even more, for she was betrothed to him years ago.”

My grief for Noemi, and my resentment against Antoine made me imprudent; I spoke unjustly, but the provocation was great.

“You take her part!” she cried, repelling me indignantly.  “Innocent—­ she innocent?  Bah!  She must have known he was married, for why else did he not marry her?  Do you think me a child to be fooled by such a tale?”

“No,” answered I sternly, looking away from her at Noemi.  “You are not a child, madame, but she is one!  Had she been a woman like yourself, your husband would never have deceived her.  She trusted him wholly.”

With a gesture that was almost fierce in its pride, Antoine’s wife turned her back upon Noemi, and moved towards the door.  “I thank my God,” she said solemnly, choking down her sobs, and bending her dark brows upon me, “that I was never such an innocent as she is!  I am not your dupe, monsieur; I know well enough what you are, and what it is that constitutes your right to defend her.  The neighbors know her story; trust them for finding it out and repeating it.  This room belongs to you, monsieur; your money paid for everything in it, and your `innocent’ there no doubt is included in the bargain.  Keep her to yourself for the future; Antoine’s foot shall never again be set in this wicked house!”

She opened the door with the last words, and vanished into the darkness without.

For a moment there was a deep silence, the voice which had just ceased seemed to me to ring and echo around the dim, still room.  The sense of a great shame was upon me; I dared not lift my eyes to Noemi’s face.

Suddenly a faint cry startled me.  She stretched her arms towards me and fell on her knees at my feet.

“O monsieur!  Antoine is lost!  My heart is dead!” Then she struck her breast wildly with her clenched hand, and swooned upon the floor.