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We noted some way back the ease hich wo-stone to a second; and the lack ofalmost

to unscrupulousness, which the best display in their dealings with a

retiring foe But there are concessions which touch even a good woman's

conscience; and Madame de Tavannes, free by the tenure of a blow, and

with that exception treated froed courtesy,

shrank appalled before the task which confronted her

To ignore what La Tribe had told her, to remain passive when a movement

on her part ht save men, women, and children from death, and a whole

city from massacre--this was a line of conduct so craven, so selfish,

that from the first she knew herself incapable of it But to take the

only other course open to her, to betray her husband and rob hiht ruin hie only, not

devotion only, but a hardness proof against reproaches as well as against

punishlorified the thing she contemplated, or dressed it in colours other than

its own Even while she acknowledged the necessity of the act and its

ultiation which lay

upon her to perform it, she saw it as he would see it, and saw herself as

he would see her

True, he had done her a great wrong; and this in the eyes of soht

pass for punishment But he had saved her life wheredone, he had behaved to her with fantastic generosity In

return for which she was to ruin hiine what he