Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/341

Rh the bowing figure in the ring. He made a spring as she came up, but the lion-tamer saw him, and with a smile slipped into the cage amongst his lions.

Nora caught the man by the arm, and pulled him roughly towards her. "What were you going to do?" she cried. "What were you going to do?"

The bar dropped from Malachy's hands. "Nothing," he said. "I was mad for the moment; I hate him. Would to God he were dead; but I shall not be his slayer."

Nora let go his arm. Her heart echoed his words, then ran cold at its own guilt.

"What is he making of us both?" she whispered; and thought of herself as she was when a girl—so innocent, so glad of the joy of living in herself and everything else; how she had welcomed the young birds whose nests she knew and would not harm; and the children, how they loved her! Now she looked upon young things with pity, feeling that they would come to misery with years, as she had done. Misery, aye, and even crime; for in her heart now was the unspoken thought, "As there is no other way, O God, separate us by death."