"Miss Le Breton, you were going to Paris to meet Major Warkworth?"
She drew back.
"And if I was?" she said, with a wild defiance.
"I had to prevent it, that was all."
His tone was calm and resolution itself.
"Who--who gave you authority over me?"
"One may save--even by violence. You were too precious to be allowed to destroy yourself."
His look, so sad and strong, the look of a deep compassion, fastened itself upon her. He felt himself, indeed, possessed by a force not his own, that same force which in its supreme degree made of St. Francis "the great tamer of souls."
"Who asked you to be our judge? Neither I nor Major Warkworth owe you anything."
"No. But I owed you help--as a man--as your friend. The truth was somehow borne in upon me. You were risking your honor--I threw myself in the way."