"Yuki," said Hagané, in a deeply troubled voice, "if Monsieur Le Beau by any chance should give the paper--unconditionally should refuse the price--" "No! no!" she cried, with a quick note of terror, and sprang to her feet again. "Where would be my atonement, my reparation? Think it not, Lord. See that your great mercy be not merciless. I shall go, gladly, gladly, to Monsieur Le Beau; my heart falters not for myself,--but him. It is a cruel deed to him." "And well deserved," muttered Hagané. "Being myself weak, Lord," said the young wife, "I feel that the deserving is, after all, the hardest pang." Pierre dashed his hand across his brow, and went to a small sideboard for a liqueur. Again these strange people were talking their mystic gibberish. Yuki was more clear, indeed. She had stated openly to her husband that she wished to be given to another man. Neither seemed to feel the least delicacy or shame. In Pierre's fastidious thought this fact made a tiny stain for Yuki. The old brute evidently wanted to be rid of her, and she, eagerly accepting freedom, did not shrink from claiming at once a more desirable companionship. At the last moment should he, Pierre, refuse to grasp the prize he had turned criminal in pursuing? No, a thousand times no! Yuki's friendless condition demanded his deepest pity. It was with a faint touch of condescension that he leaned to her, saying, "Do not falter now, Yuki. Our goal is in sight. I will be true to you. I will yet make you happy!" "Happy! happy!" echoed the woman in a ghost's voice. "All foreigners think and say only that one thing,--_happy_! Pierre, Pierre, I need so much more than--happiness!" The pathos of her voice, her small face, touched him to a manlier emotion. She was so young, so white, so helpless! "What it is possible for me to give you I live but to bestow, my darling," he said, and, kneeling, kissed a small, scarred hand. "I can promise love, protection, deep respect,--for the slime of this man shall not cling to you!" Hagané snatched him bodily from the floor. His eyes blazed like a beast's. "Time will come for puling. A few things are yet to be said. Let us conclude the savory bargain. I must be gone." "Yes, let us finish quickly," whispered Yuki. "Gallant lover," continued Hagané to Pierre, "when and how do you wish to claim your prize?" "Now, at once," cried Pierre, rallying a little under the scorn hurled toward him. "You have the eyes of a demon. She would not be safe alone with you. Take the paper now, and let me have her!" Yuki shivered again, and hid her face in her sleeve. "I shall not harm madame. This I can assure you. But the earliest possible hour for your ecstasy will be--to-night!" "To-night--to-night!" moaned Yuki. "It must be so. You cannot pass another night beneath my roof, and there is none who dares receive you but this brawny champion."