Fear such as he had not before experienced chilled his marrow.

This was hate indeed, a hate before which the strong man quailed; the hate of which Mademoiselle had spoken when she said that the babes crossed themselves at her passing, and the houses tottered to fall upon her! He paused a minute to recover himself, so deeply had the sight moved him; and as he stood, he wondered if that hate already had its cold eye fixed on him.

Instinctively his gaze searched the opposite wall, but save for two small double-grated windows it was blind; time-stained and stone-built, dark with the ordure of the city lane, it seemed but the back of a house, which looked another way.

The outer gates of an arched doorway were open, and a loaded haycart, touching either side and brushing the arch above, blocked the passage.

His gaze, leaving the windows, dropped to this--he scanned it a moment; and on a sudden he stiffened.