to the great temptation which overcame me.'

"'The temptation of a bribe?" said I, inquiringly. She turned her
failing sight towards my face and shook her head feebly.

"`No bribe, father," she answered. `Do you believe I would have
done what I did for mere coin?"

"I gave no reply, for her words were enigmatical to me, and I was
loath to harass with my curiosity a soul so near its departure as
hers. So I leaned back in my chair and sat silent, in the hope
that, being wearied with her religious exercises, she might be able
to sleep a little. But, no doubt, my last question, working in
her disordered mind, awoke again the madness that had only slumbered
for a time. Suddenly she raised herself on her pillow, pressed
her withered hands to her head, and cried out wildly:--

"`Money!--money to me, who would have sold my own soul for one day
of his love! Ah! I could have flung it back in their faces!--foo's
that they were to believe I cared for gold! Philip! Philip! you
were mad to think of the heiress as a wife; it had been better
for you had you cared to look on me--on me who loved you so! Then
I should never have ruined you--never betrayed you to Lady Sarah!
But I could not forgive the hard words you gave me; I could not
forgive your love for Julia! Shall I ever go to paradise--to
paradise where the saints are? Will they let me in there?--will
they suffer my soul among them? Or shall I never leave purgatory,
but burn, and burn, and burn there always uncleansed? For, oh!
if all the past should come back to me a thousand years hence, I
should do the same thing again, Phil Brian, for love of you!'