"René!" she implored, sinking to his feet, "Have pity on me. I consented because your mother was starving to death before my eyes that little child we saved from the ship. O René, never call her mother again."
"Is that what she did?" stammered the Marquis, clasping his hands.
"Yes," she replied. "René, my father was right; the crimes of the mighty are expiated by the innocent. How can one hear a little child cry for bread and not save him? Yes, I have taken vows at the altar. I am the wife of your steward."
"Why did you marry her?" demanded René, turning furiously on Vilon.
"Because your mother said you wished it."
"Did you know of the child's starvation?"
"By the cross, I did not."
"And you dared to love her?"
"From the moment I saw her," he cried with impetuous sincerity.
"Aha! I find the motive. Obedience to the devil! So you loved her?"