'I saw--' The Countess suddenly rose to her feet.

'No more of that,' she cried.
'Oh, Jesu Maria! do you think I want to be told what you saw?
Do you think I don't know what it means for you and for me?
Decide for yourself, Miss.

Examine your own mind.

Are you well assured that the day of reckoning has come at last?
Are you ready to follow me back, through the crimes of the past, to the secrets of the dead ?' She returned again to the writing-table, without waiting to be answered.

Her eyes flashed; she looked like her old self once more as she spoke.