Page:Resurrection Rock (1920).pdf/373

 plish something, I thought, was to watch the Cullens; Lucas Cullen and his brother John, who knew too much of Lucas's character, already had fallen out. I changed my name and came to Chicago to watch Lucas Cullen; he left Chicago and built his house at St. Florentin; and I went to live near there. I was not sure at first whether or not he knew me when we met.

"That was the summer before his daughter married, when he had her friend, the Marquis de Chenal, as his guest at St. Florentin. So De Chenal happened to meet me one day; he left Lucas Cullen's house several times after that to find me. He attracted me, too. I thought he loved me."

Her voice for a moment failed; and Barney could remain in his seat no longer. While she had held complete mastery of herself, while her will-supported strength had sufficed to keep her controlled, clear in thought and speech and purpose, while she had been arraigning to judgment the enemy of all her life, Barney had made himself obey her. But now, not her will, but the power of her body to obey her will was weakening; and what she was saying no longer contained the tone of direct accusation. For the moment, at least, she was ignoring her charge against her enemy for another purpose not yet fully plain.

"I told De Chenal why I was as I was, how my father was in prison, falsely accused by Lucas Cullen. De Chenal swore to help me; he was hot in my cause," she continued. "He swore to justify my father and punish Lucas Cullen. First, he would marry me. I loved and believed him; perhaps he believed himself in those days; I was very young and he was young and—we went to a priest—"

Barney began to make his way toward her. Now she