"Leah, how did you get this disease?" The woman took no notice, but sprang up, as though moved by springs, flinging wide her arms, and looking upward in wild rebellion. "I won't die--I won't. I refuse to give in--I refuse"; she tore up and down the room, speaking in angry undertones, as one always mindful of possible listeners. "I have always had my own way!" was her whispered argument--"always--always; why can't I have it now? There can be nothing up there; no, no--there can't be. If He does exist He would not have let me go so long on my own. I am strong--I have never met any one stronger. I must win--I have always won. I will win!" her voice rose tyrannically. "I am myself; who can be stronger than myself? And yet this thing"--a strong shudder shook her into weakness--"this vile--vile---- Ugh! ugh! I believe there must be Something. Can you tell me, you--you who assume to know the secrets of the stars?" She lurched forward in a frenzy of deadly fear, cannoned against Lionel, and dragged him down into his chair, clasping his knees, and knocking her forehead against them. "Where is your Master?" she whimpered. "Tell Him I'm sorry--really I am sorry. He may cure me then, as He cured that man long ago. Gentle Jesus--the children call Him so; He can't be cruel to me--to me. He can't be cruel to any one, so they say--ah, they say, they say; but how do I know? It's not true, it isn't true, and yet if it was--if it---- Lionel----" She broke off with the squall of a terrified child, hiding her eyes pitifully. "I'll be good--I'll be good, if only--only He will do this! It's a little thing--oh, a very little thing. And you said that He could--that He, your Master, I mean. Oh! oh! oh!" With sobbing breath she unwound her arms and fell back beating the carpet with open palms. Murmurings went rhythmically with the padding sound. "I want to be clean; I want to be clean; I want to be clean." Kaimes tried to lift her. "Let me summon help." With a bound she was on her feet, pushing him back. "Do that and I kill you," she panted, clenching her hands and facing him furiously. "No one knows but these doctors--yes, and Katinka, and that fiend Demetrius. Strange also. If I had Strange here"-- she hammered with closed fists on the vicar's shoulders--"I would cut him into bits; I would blind him somehow; I would--I would--oh, what would I not do? Why couldn't he leave that infected beast to die in Siberia? Oh, the--the--the----" She poured forth a torrent of words, which made the listener grow hot and cold with shame. Then again she collapsed as the chill of a deadly fear struck at her heart. "I don't want to die--I don't want to die!" and against the wall she rocked with arms held crosswise over her eyes, swinging, ever swinging. The scene was like a nightmare; but by this time Lionel had the grip of his emotions. "Leah," he said firmly, and advancing close to the writhing creature, "you must tell your husband; you must----"