"It is my duty," she repeated, "and no arguments will shake my purpose,"
she said firmly.

"Madam," I replied as a last effort, "the medical profession, too, has
its duties, and an honourable man must fulfil them even to harshness and
cruelty; your presence is killing your father."

I shall remember all my life the sudden change in the expression of the
face of Odile.

My solemn words of warning seemed to cause the blood to flow back to the
heart; her face became white as marble, and her large blue eyes, fixed
steadily upon mine, seemed to read into the most secret recesses of my
soul.

"Is that possible, sir?" she stammered; "upon your honour, do you declare
this? Tell me truly!"

"Yes, madam, upon my honour."

There was a long and painful silence, only broken at last by these words
in a low voice:--

"Let God's will be done!"

And with downcast eyes she withdrew.

The day after this scene, about eight in the morning, I was pacing up and
down in Hugh Lupus's tower, thinking of the count's illness, of which I
could not foretell the issue--and I was thinking too of my patients at