The marquise pushed him from her with a strength wrung from indignation. "For the sake of all of us, go for a time," she murmured. "In the name of honest womanhood and vain regret--go! that this folly may be forgotten. I will try to forget. Go! and I swear to you that no word of it shall pass my lips." "How little you know me," scoffed the abbe, disdaining for the time to press her further. "Have you not learnt yet, that what I will is done? Awake the pig there, and ask if it is not so. What I have resolved upon, I do. You are mine--all mine--whether you like it or not; now or a little later!" "Then I must seek refuge with my husband." "If you accuse me, he will not believe you. The influence over him that you awkwardly threw away, I gained. How ill you've played your cards, most charming woman! He is a weak man who must be led by some one--it might have been by _you_. Come, say the word, and you shall lead him yet; or, rather, we will together." Gabrielle looked again into the abbe's face (which was so terribly close to hers), then at that of his sleeping brother, who had turned in uneasy slumber. How could she have been deceived so long? Sensuality on both masks--the one, gross and altogether earthy; the other, marked by flashes of sly eyes and twists of thin lips that were not well to look upon, for that second mask was transparent, and the devil was peering through. "I will give you time to think," proceeded the abbe, "since, though the moment is propitious, you are not in the mood for wooing. Here is a rebus. Your fate is in my hand, yet in your own. According as you decide, you will find in me the most devoted servant or the most implacable enemy. The love of us southerners is not far removed from hate. According as you act, you may bask in its beams or be scorched into a cinder; hence it is to be feared and respected." Pressing so close to her that she could feel the pulsations of his breast, he added in low accents that cut into her heart like steel, "Be well advised, and comprehend the truth. Your life hangs in the balance for happiness or misery. Consider, and choose wisely, for this is the critical time on which your fate depends."