"Will I never learn that?
Its justice cannot overcome the injustice of man.

My God!" she cried then, with a sudden, terrible energy, "our punishment should be light, our rest sure, our paradise safe, at the end, since we have to make now such awful atonement; since men compel us to endure the pangs of purgatory, the tortures of hell, here upon earth." After that she sat for a long while silent, evidently revolving a thousand thoughts of every shape and hue, judging from the myriads of lights and shadows that flitted over her face.

At last, rousing herself, she perceived that she had no more time to spend in this sorrowful employment,--that she must prepare to go away from him, as her heart said, forever.

"Forever!" it repeated.

"This, then, is the close of it all,--the miserable end!" With that thought she shut her slender hand, and struck it down hard, the blood almost starting from the driven nails and bruised flesh, unheeding; though a little space thereafter she smiled, beholding it, and muttered, "So--the drop of savage blood is telling at last!" Presently she was gone.