"Oh, but I _is_ bad, very bad! You didn't know, of course not! I was sly to hide everythings. Pierre and I have arrange so that, in spite of cruel father, and Prince Hagané and all, we comes together at last! Ah, push me off again!" she cried convulsively. "That is right! I care not if I lose you, and Mrs. Todd, and Gwendolen, and my good name,--everything! if only I can go to Pierre this night! Just let me do what I wish, as all have agree but you. Try not to prevent!" At the wild light in her eyes, the impassioned ring of her voice, Todd, his faith for the moment quailing, had pushed her off a few shuddering inches. She clung still to his hand. By this he drew her near again, and probed. Before his first word, she must have surmised the change, for she swayed in his hold, shuddered violently, closed her lids, and let her lips form a few dumb words of prayer. "Yuki!" Todd began, in a voice so low that the others scarcely heard. "Yuki, this is a part you are playing. Eternity is your stage, and tragedy your curtain. The room smells of it. You are not bad. You harbor now a heroic design. I cannot understand, but I believe it to be supreme! Before God, look into my eyes, and tell me the truth. I will not betray you!" She lifted calmly, now, the great, dark orbs. He gazed down into them, to the thought that lay, like a white rock, in the clear depths. In absolute moments the human soul has a speech of its own and an ear to listen. Her lips moved no more. She was not conscious of further effort to make him see. Without grosser statement, knowledge came to him. This life of earth already had lost its hold on her,--Pierre was less than a shadow on a stream. Todd knew that she was to die,--that the discarded shell of the thing he loved would be Pierre's prize. By the same ghostly prescience Hagané knew that certainty had laid her cold touch upon the American. He averted quickly his dark face from the sight. Ronsard, who was nearest, saw a mighty shudder blow upon him; then the face, now twitching, lifted toward the light. His lips moved. Ronsard could not surmise the trend of the broken, muttered words; but Yuki, who had neither heard nor seen, knew that he was praying. Todd loosed the girl's hand now, not in rebuke, but as one incapable of sustaining longer the fragile burden. The alertness, the eagerness went from him. All at once he was a middle-aged man. "And I must stand by and do--nothing!" he whispered, half to himself, half to her. "Oh, you can still do much. You can believe in me,--and Gwendolen will not need to scorn me. I will thank you always, if only for what you have just understood." "Come!" said Hagané, sharply. "A woman's endurance has a limit. The paper, please, Monsieur Le Beau." Ronsard touched Pierre's arm. "Not until you have received your price." "When Yuki comes to me to-night, and not before," said Pierre, valiantly. He was pleased with the sound of his own bravado.