Under the moonlight the girl's fragile beauty wove its fascination deeper over him. He launched himself upon the strange sea of emotions which were more and more crowding upon him.
"Oh, my God!" he thought, "am I walking the celestial gardens? Am I a spirit doomed to banishment? Am I at the same moment both ravished and damned?"
Once when they came to the end of the terrace they leaned on the balustrade and looked down at the water. Glossy dark in the shadows of the old castle which stood in its midst, and in those of the grove on the further side, it glittered tranquilly where the moonshine fell on its surface, and the foliage around it wore a soft, glittering veil. Some mighty witch, some spirit combining Beauty, Power, and the Centuries, seemed to reign over the lake, holding silent court in the peaked and clustered white walls and turrets of the ancient stronghold.
"Mademoiselle," he said very quietly, "I have reason to be silent; but tell me why you are so pensive?"
"I was sad for my friend Hélène. Love must be so sacred."
"Did you know her suitor?"
"Sillon—yes; he had dared to speak to me."
They were silent. It was not he who next spoke. Her clear eyes looked as if into his soul as she said after a long time—
"Monsieur de Répentigny, what would you do were you Hélène's brother?"
Germain's sword in an instant slid half-drawn from its sheath, and he gasped, "I would find him."