The words of the chant,
following us, I could hear distinctly:
"That we, being delivered out of the hands of our enemies,
might serve Him without fear."
And then, from the shadowed corner came in a high, melancholy
voice the words:
"To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace."
Looking closer, I saw it was Mathilde.
Doltaire smiled as I turned and begged a moment's time to speak
to her.
"To pray with the lost angel and sup with the Intendant, all in
one night--a liberal taste, monsieur; but who shall stay the good
Samaritan!"
They stood a little distance away, and I went over to her and
said, "Mademoiselle--Mathilde, do you not know me?"
Her abstracted eye fired up, as there ran to her brain some
little sprite out of the House of Memory and told her who I
was.
"There were two lovers in the world," she said: "the Mother of
God forgot them, and the devil came. I am the Scarlet Woman," she
went on; "I made this red robe from the curtains of Hell--"
Poor soul! My own trouble seemed then as a speck among the stars
to hers.
Pages:
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64