Still without speaking she led the way along the path, past the old tower, to a seat of marble gleaming white amid a setting of evergreens. “Now I am ready to hear you, monsieur,” she said, and sank into one corner of the seat. I took a turn up and down the path to compose myself somewhat, to quiet the painful throbbing of my heart. How I longed to sit there beside her--to whisper in her ear, to tell her---- “Mademoiselle,” I began finally, pausing before her, “believe me, it is not an easy task which I have set myself, nor one which I would choose to face could it be shirked with honor. But since I must face it--since there is no other way--I shall try to do so with such courage as I possess.” “A most disconcerting preamble,” she commented. “I tremble at what will follow. If it is so formidable perhaps, after all, you would better take M. le Comte for your confidant.” “M. le Comte has no concern in it.” “And I have?” she asked, looking at me quickly with a little shrinking of alarm. “Indirectly--yes.” “Oh,” she said with a breath of relief. “Extremely indirectly, I should say!” “Besides,” I added, “I wish you to advise me--and your advice will be worth much more to me than M. le Comte’s, or any other’s.” “Thank you; although that sounds somewhat as if it were a continuation of the riddle. Pray continue.” “It is necessary that I should go back a little,” I explained. “Thirty years ago my father made a pilgrimage to Mont Saint-Michel to discharge a vow. As he approached the rock across the sands he was suddenly conscious that his horse was having difficulty in proceeding. In a moment more the horse had sunk to his belly and my father perceived that he had blundered into a quicksand. He flung himself from the saddle, and abandoning the beast to its fate,--which indeed nothing could have averted,--endeavored to make his way back to solid ground. He sank to his ankles, to his knees, to his waist. His struggles to escape served only to entangle him more deeply, until at last, seeing them in vain, he set himself to await the end courageously. He glanced around over the sands to make sure that there was no help in sight, then he turned his face toward the cross above the rock and commended his soul to God.