But even before the words were out of Madame's mouth, Crystal was running along the corridor—ready to obey. At the foot of the stairs St. Genis intercepted her.
"Let me pass!" she cried wildly.
"Not before you have said that you have forgiven me!" he entreated as he clung to her white draperies with a passionate gesture of appeal.
An exclamation which was almost one of loathing escaped her lips and with a jerk she freed her skirt from his clutch. Then she ran quickly up the stairs. Outside the door of her own room on the first landing she paused for one minute, and from out of the gloom her voice came to him like the knell of passing hope.
"If he comes back alive out of the hell to which you condemned him," she said, "I may in the future endure the sight of you again. . . . If he dies . . . may God forgive you!"
The opening and shutting of a door told him that she was gone, and he was left in company with his shame.