Page:The Father Confessor, Stories of Danger and Death.djvu/348

338 "What do you mean?" he stammered, a horror growing in his eyes.

"I mean you drew the strength from my husband's limbs and the reason from his brain. You made him fall amongst the lions; you mesmerized him: and I knew, and could have stopped you, but I let him die."

The man grew white as death, and staggered from her.

"Yes, it is true!" he gasped. "I did not know my own power, but I hated him and wished him dead. I watched him that night, and my spirit went out and encircled him in numbness and death. I knew it, I knew it; but dared not breathe it to myself."

"We are murderers," the woman said, in a hard voice. "There is a dead man's body between us and happiness for ever. Bid me good-bye and leave me."

The man fell upon his knees before her, kissing her hands again and again.

"Is there no escape?" he groaned. "Is there no pardon? Is there no punishment less terrible than separation?"

"There is no punishment so just," she said; then fell upon his shoulder weeping. "But I