determined to press on together towards the
one goal, and along the self-same road.

I put my breviary aside, and took wholly
to the New Testament, assuming no name
either of Catholic or Protestant, but simply
that of Christian.

When I decided on this, of course I told
Anastasius. He received the tidings calmly.
He had ceased to be my spiritual confessor
for some time; yet I could see he was greatly
surprised, afterwards he became altogether
changed.

"I wish," said I, one day, " as I shall be
twenty-one next year, to have more freedom.
I wish even " — for since the discovery of my
change of belief he had watched me so closely,
so quietly, so continually, that I had conceived
a vague fear of him, and a longing to
get away — to put half the earth between me
and his presence — " I wish even, if possible this
summer, to visit my estates in Hispaniola?"

"Alone?"

"No; Madame Gradelle will accompany
me. And Mr. Saltram will charter one of his
ships for my use."

For, I should say, Alexis was, far from
being a Roman Catholic priest, a merchant
of large means.

" I approve the plan. It will be of advantage
to your health. But Madame Gradelle is not
sufficient escort.  I, as your guardian, will
accompany and protect you."

A cold dread seized me. Was I never to
be free? Already I began to feel my guardian's
influence surrounding me — an influence
once of love, now of intolerable distaste, and
even fear. Not that he was ever harsh or
cruel— not that I could accuse him of any
single wrong towards me or others: but I knew
I had thwarted him, and through him, his
cause — that cause whose strongest dogma is
that any means are sacred, any evil good, to
the one great end — Power.

I had oppressed him, and I was in his
hand — that hand which I had once believed
to have almost superhuman strength. In my
terror I believed it still.

"He will go with us— we cannot escape
from him," I said to Alexis. " He will make
you a priest and me a nun, as he planned — I
know he did. Our very souls are not our own."
"What, when the world is so wide, and life
so long, and God's kindness over all — when
too, I am free, and you will be free in a year
—  when" —

"I shall never be free. He is my evil
genius. He will haunt me till my death."

It was a morbid feeling I had, consequent
on the awful struggle which had so shaken
body and mind. The sound of his step made
me turn sick and tremble; the sight of his
grand face  — perhaps the most beautiful I
ever saw, with its faultless features, and the
half-melancholy cast given by the high bald
forehead and the pointed beard  — was to me
more terrible than any monster of ugliness
the world ever produced.

He held my fortune  — he ruled my house.
All visitants there came and went under his
control, except Alexis. Why this young
man still came — or how — I could not tell.
Probably because in his pure singleness of
heart and purpose, he was stronger even than
M. Anastasius.

The time passed. We embarked on board
the ship Argo, for Hispaniola.

My guardian told me, at the last minute,
that business relating to his order would probably
detain him in Europe— that we were to
lie at anchor for twelve hours, off Havre —
and, if he then came not, sail.

He came not — we sailed.

It was a glorious evening. The sun, as he
went down over the burning seas, beckoned
us with a finger of golden fire, westward — to
the free, safe, happy West.

I say us, because in that evening we first
began unconsciously to say it too — as if
vaguely binding our fates together — Alexis
and I. We talked for a whole hour — till
long after France, with all our old life
therein, had become a mere line, a cloudy
speck on the horizon — of the new life we
should lead in Hispaniola. Yet all the while,
if we had been truly the priest and nun he
wished to make us, our words, and I believe
our thoughts, could not have been more
angel-pure, more free from any bias of human
passion.

Yet, as the sun went down, and the sea-breeze
made us draw nearer together, both
began, I repeat, instinctively to say we, and
talk of our future as if it had been the future
of one.

"Good evening, friends!"

He was there — M. Anastasius! I stood
petrified. All the golden finger of hope had
vanished. I shuddered, a captive on his
compelling arm — seeing nothing but his
terrible smiling face and the black wilderness
of sea. For the moment I felt inclined
to plunge therein — I had often longed to
plunge into the equally fearsome wilderness
of Paris streets — only I felt sure he would
follow me still. He would track me, it seemed,
through the whole world.

"You see I have been able to accomplish the
voyage; men mostly can achieve any strong
purpose — at least some men. Isbel, this sea-air
will bring back your bloom.  And, Alexis,
my friend, despite those close studies you told
me of, I hope you will bestow a little of your
society at times on my ward and me. We
will bid you a good evening now."

He gave his nephew my powerless hand;
that of Alexis, too, felt cold and trembling.
It seemed as if he likewise could not resist
the fate which, born out of one man's
indomitable will, dragged us asunder. Ere my
guardian consigned me to Madame Gradelle,
he said, smiling, but looking through me with
his eyes,

"Remember, my fair cousin, that Alexis is
to be — must be — a priest."