suffocating, and she opened the window a little very softly. Then she
lit the candle tremblingly, watched the flame gather strength, and opened
out the will. As she did so, however, the smell of a clover field, which
is as honey, came stealing through the room, and all at once a strange
association of ideas flashed into her brain.

She recalled one summer day long ago, when, in the church of St.
Saviour's, the smell of the clover fields came through the open doors
and windows, and her mind had kept repeating mechanically, till she fell
asleep, the text of the Curb's sermon--"As ye sow, so also shall ye
reap."

That placid hour which had no problems, no cares, no fears, no penalties
in view, which was filled with the richness of a blessed harvest and the
plenitude of innocent youth, came back on her now in the moment of her
fierce temptation.

She folded up the paper slowly, a sob came in her throat, she blew out
the candle, and put the will back in the cupboard. The faint click of
the spring as she closed the panel seemed terribly loud to her. She
started and looked timorously round. The blood came back to her face--
she flushed crimson with guilt. Then she turned out the lighted lamp
and crept away up the stairs to her room.

She paused beside Louis' bed. He was moving restlessly in his sleep;
he was murmuring her name. With a breaking sigh she crept into bed
slowly and lay like one who had been beaten, bruised, and shamed.

At last, before the dawn, she fell asleep. She dreamed that she was
in prison and that George Fournel was her jailor.