After a while he looked up at Rougemont, who was leaning over his shoulder, and whose features were wrinkled with a derisive smile. "Then you _are_ the Fiend?" he cried. "If you will have it so--certainly," replied the other. "You are Satan in the form of the man I once knew," cried Auriol. "Avaunt! I will have no dealings with you." "I thought you wiser than to indulge in such idle fears, Darcy," rejoined the other. "Granting even your silly notion of me to be correct, why need you be alarmed? You are immortal." "True," rejoined Auriol thoughtfully; "but yet----" "Pshaw!" rejoined the other, "sign, and have done with the matter." "By this compact I am bound to deliver a victim--a female victim--whenever you shall require it," cried Auriol. "Precisely," replied the other; "you can have no difficulty in fulfilling that condition." "But if I fail in doing so, I am doomed----" "But you will _not_ fail," interrupted the other, lighting a taper and sealing the parchment. "Now sign it." Auriol mechanically took the pen, and gazed fixedly on the document. "I shall bring eternal destruction on myself if I sign it," he muttered. "A stroke of the pen will rescue you from utter ruin," said Rougemont, leaning over his shoulder. "Riches and happiness are yours. You will not have such another chance." "Tempter!" cried Auriol, hastily attaching his signature to the paper. But he instantly started back aghast at the fiendish laugh that rang in his ears. "I repent--give it me back!" he cried, endeavouring to snatch the parchment, which Rougemont thrust into his bosom. "It is too late!" cried the latter, in a triumphant tone. "You are mine--irredeemably mine." "Ha!" exclaimed Auriol, sinking back on the couch. "I leave you in possession of your house," pursued Rougemont; "but I shall return in a week, when I shall require my first victim." "Your first victim! oh, Heaven!" exclaimed Auriol. "Ay, and my choice falls on Edith Talbot!" replied Rougemont. "Edith Talbot!" exclaimed Auriol; "she your victim! Think you I would resign her I love better than life to you?" "It is because she loves you that I have chosen her," rejoined Rougemont, with a bitter laugh. "And such will ever be the case with you. Seek not to love again, for your passion will be fatal to the object of it. When the week has elapsed, I shall require Edith at your hands. Till then, farewell!" "Stay!" cried Auriol. "I break the bargain with thee, fiend. I will have none of it. I abjure thee." And he rushed wildly after Rougemont, who had already gained the larger chamber; but, ere he could reach him, the mysterious individual had passed through the outer door, and when Auriol emerged upon the gallery, he was nowhere to be seen. Several servants immediately answered the frantic shouts of the young man, and informed him that Mr. Rougemont had quitted the house some moments ago, telling them that their master was perfectly satisfied with the arrangements he had made for him.