"How pious.
"He killed a man in cold blood, after having tortured him for sixteen years! Sent him the sentence of death in a letter! Forced the gracious, quiet, honorable man and father to cut short his life with his own hand!
"With a cold, smiling countenance he took advantage of the fiendish power which fate and the too sensitive feeling of honor of a lofty soul had given into his hand; and then shrugged his shoulders, clasped his hands, turned his eyes to heaven, and said 'there is no room for the suicide with God.'
"Who is he, who gives a true man into the hands of the deceiver, that he may choke with his right hand his breath, with his left his soul.
"Well, philosopher, come; defend this pious man against me! Tell me what you have learned."
But the philosopher did not say what he had learned. Half dead and wholly insensible he lay back in his chair while the moon shone upon his upturned face with its full brilliance.
CHAPTER XIV
TWO GIRLS
Eight years had passed.