"But it is over now, and the evil is averted." "But how came I here ?" "That you shall learn." I stooped to gather up the cloak which had slipped from her shoulders as she advanced.

"Do you wrap this about you," I urged her, and with my own hands I assisted to enfold her in that mantle.

"Are you faint, Madonna ?" I asked.
"I scarce know," she answered in a frightened voice.

"There is a black horror upon me.

Tell me," she implored again, "what does it mean ?" I drew her away now, promising to satisfy her in the fullest manner once she were out of these forbidding surroundings.