Page:Gilbert Parker--The Lane that had No Turning.djvu/101

Rh I have been living in another man’s house, on another’s bread”

“O Louis, no—no—no! Our money has paid for all.”

“Your money, Madelinette!” His voice rose.

“Ah, don’t speak like that! See, Louis. It can make no difference. How you have found out I do not know, but it can make no difference. I did not want you to know—you loved the Seigneury so! I concealed the will. Tardif found it, as you say. But, Louis, dear, it is all right. Monsieur Fournel would not take the place, and—and I have bought it.”

She told her falsehood fearlessly. This man’s trouble, this man’s peace, if she might but win it, was the purpose of her life.

“Tardif said that—he said that you—that you and Fournel”

She read his meaning in his tone, and shrank back in terror, then with a flush, straightened herself, and took a step towards him.

“It was natural that you should not care for a hunchback like me,” he continued, “but”

“Louis!” she cried, in a voice of anguish and reproach.

“But I did not doubt you. I believed in you when he said it, as I believe in you now when you stand there like that. I know what you have done for me”

“I pleaded with Monsieur Fournel, knowing how you loved the Seigneury—pleaded and offered to pay three times the price”

“Yourself would have been a hundred million times the price. Ah, I know you, Madelinette—I know you now! I have been selfish, but I see all now. Now when all is over”—he seemed listening to noises with-