“Madame,” sobbed the old woman, who was crying, “she was dying of the plague, and how could I help it? They would have buried her in spite of me.”
“She was not dead; there was your mistake. She was as much alive as you or I at this moment.”
“Madame, I left her dead!” said the old woman positively.
“Prudence, you did no such thing; you left her fainting, and in that state she was found and carried to the plague-pit.”
The old woman stood silent for a moment, with a face of intense horror, and then she clasped both hands with a wild cry.
“O my God! And they buried her alive—buried her alive in that dreadful plague-pit!”
La Masque, leaning against a pillar, stood unmoved; and her voice, when she spoke, was as coldly sweet as modern ice-cream.
“Not exactly. She was not buried at all, as I happen to know. But when did you discover that she had the plague, and how could she possibly have caught it?”
“That I do not know, madam. She seemed well enough all day, though not in such high spirits as a bride should be. Toward evening she complained of a headache and a feeling of faintness; but I thought nothing of it, and helped her to dress for the bridal. Before it was over, the headache and faintness grew worse, and I gave her wine, and still suspected nothing. The last time I came in, she had grown so much worse, that notwithstanding her wedding dress, she had lain down on her bed, looking for all the world like a ghost, and told me she had the most dreadful burning pain in her chest. Then, madame, the horrid truth struck me—I tore down her dress, and there, sure enough, was the awful mark of the distemper. `You have the plague!' I shrieked; and then I fled down stairs and out of the house, like one crazy. O madame, madame! I shall never forget it—it was terrible! I shall never forget it! Poor, poor child; and the count does not know a word of it!”
La Masque laughed—a sweet, clear, deriding laugh, “So the count does not know it, Prudence? Poor man! he will be in despair when he finds it out, won't he? Such an ardent and devoted lover as he was you know!”