“Listen to me,” she continued. “It is the truth which you must tell now. He says that you—you are Father Paul.”
Hagon did not hesitate for a second.
“It is true,” he admitted.
Then there was a silence—short, but tragical. Hagon seemed suddenly to have collapsed. He was like a man who has just had a stroke. He stood muttering to himself.
“It is the end—this—the end!” he said, in a low tone. “Sophia!”
She shrank away from him. He drew himself up. Once more the great light flashed in his face.
“It was for your sake,” he said simply, “for your sake, Sophia. I came to you poor and you would have nothing to say to me. My love for you burned in my veins like fever. It was for you I did it—for your sake I sold my honor, the love of my country, the freedom of my brothers. For your sake I risked an awful death. For your sake I have lived like a hunted man, with the cry of the wolves always in my ears, and the fear of death and of eternal torture with me day by day. No other man since the world was made has done more. Have pity on me!”
She was unmoved; her face had lost all expression. No one noticed in that rapt moment that Bernadine had crept from the room.
“It was you,” she cried, “who killed my father, and sent my brothers into exile.”
“God help me!” he moaned.