"I know much, and a little more light may enable us to act and to bring the guilty to punishment.

Does she live in the house ?" Only the darkness hid Claude's pallor.

"There is a woman," he muttered reluctantly, "who lives in the house.

But I know nothing! I have no proof! Nothing, nothing!" "But you suspect! You suspect, young man," the Syndic continued, eyeing him sternly, "and suspecting you would leave her in the clutches of the devil whose she must become, body and soul! For shame!" "But I do not believe it!" Claude cried fiercely.

"I do not believe it!" "Of her ?" "Of her?
No! _Mon dieu!_ No! She is a child! She is innocent! Innocent as----" "The day! you would say ?" the Syndic struck in, almost solemnly.