She was going to see if she could find some birds for Olive,--the child's appetite was so poor; and, as she was out, she would drop an early prayer at the cathedral.

Faith and works.
"One must venture something, sometimes, in the cause of religion," thought she, as she started timorously on her way.

But she had not gone a dozen steps before she repented her temerity.

There was some one behind her.
There should not be anything terrible in a footstep merely because it is masculine; but Madame Delphine's mind was not prepared to consider that.
A terrible secret was haunting her.

Yesterday morning she had found a shoe-track in the garden.