"Yes, Giles, the love of long ago still lives in thy memory."
"And what harm if it do?"
"No harm save as it drives thee to injustice. Beware! and trust not thy judgment when thy heart holds the balance."
"Good-bye!" said Giles Brent, and turned upon his heel.
CHAPTER X
THE ORDEAL BY TOUCH
The second day after the murder had come, and still Father Mohl's body lay in the centre of the great hall, the inscrutable smile still on his lips, the fringe of hair streaked over the high, pale forehead. The candles at his head and feet guttered and dripped in their sockets and opposed their yellow flame to the grayness of the January day which seemed to be peering in curiously at the scene in the hall, where all the household of St. Gabriel's were gathered to watch the final test of Christopher Neville's guilt or innocence.
The dwellers by Chesapeake Bay two hundred and fifty years ago had not banished the influence of the supernatural from the conduct of life in public or private affairs. If their easy toleration prevented their taking satisfaction in the witch-burning practised by their contemporaries in Massachusetts, they yet found nothing incredible in witchcraft, for they too saw ghosts and felt the malign influence of the evil eye.