"Yes,--after death!" he repeated sombrely--"There _is_ an after;--as your mother knows!" A faint exclamation escaped her,--she fixed her eyes upon him affrightedly. "Fair lady," he went on--"your mother was, like yourself, a voluptuary. She, like you, made up her mind to 'follow the fashion' as you put it, as soon as her husband's 'blind' or willing confidence was gained. She chose, not one lover but many. You know her end. In the written but miscomprehended laws of Nature, a diseased body is the natural expression of a diseased mind,--her face in her last days was the reflex of her soul. You shudder?--the thought of her hideousness is repellent to your self-conscious beauty? Yet the evil that was in her is also in you,--it festers in your blood slowly but surely, and as you have no faith in God to cure the disease, it will have its way--even at the final moment when death clutches at your throat and stops your breathing. The smile upon your frozen lips then will not be the smile of a saint, believe me, but of a sinner! Death is never deceived, though life may be. And afterwards ... I ask again, will you love me, do you think? ... when you know WHO I am?" I was myself startled at his manner of putting this strange question;--I saw her lift her hands beseechingly towards him, and she seemed to tremble. "When I know who you are!" she repeated wonderingly--"Do I not know? You are Lucio,--Lucio Rimânez--my love,--my love!--whose voice is my music,--whose beauty I adore,--whose looks are my heaven" ... "And Hell!" he interposed, with a low laugh--"Come here!" She went towards him eagerly, yet falteringly. He pointed to the ground,--I saw the rare blue diamond he always wore on his right hand, flash like a flame in the moonrays. "Since you love me so well,"--he said--"Kneel down and worship me!" She dropped on her knees--and clasped her hands,--I strove to move,--to speak,--but some resistless force held me dumb and motionless;--the light from the stained glass window fell upon her face, and showed its fairness illumined by a smile of perfect rapture. "With every pulse of my being I worship you!" she murmured passionately--"My king!--my god! The cruel things you say but deepen my love for you,--you can kill, but you can never change me! For one kiss of your lips I would die,--for one embrace from you I would give my soul! ..."