“Yet you have already said that in your heart love knows no place.”
“I tell you I love him!” she cried. “He shall not suffer!”
She was evidently referring to me. I held my breath, eager to catch every syllable. Perhaps this man was urging her to kill me!
“The power you possess to work evil is irresistible,” he said briefly.
“Alas! I know it,” she answered. “Those with whom I am in daily contact little dream of who or what I really am, or they would shun me as they would shun a leper.”
“Why should they?” her bony-faced companion asked. “Evil has been dominant in the world for all ages, and the Prince of Darkness has still the ascendency!”
“But is not mine the blackest—the foulest of all crimes?” she shuddered.
“Only one touch,” he urged. “Your hand is fatal.”
“Ah! why do you taunt me thus?” she cried. “Is it not enough that I should be degraded and outcast, overburdened by sin for which I cannot hope for forgiveness, and that my position should be irretrievably lost? Is it not enough that in me all the evils of the world are concentrated, and that I am shut out from happiness for ever?”
“You had your choice,” the man answered. “It is true that you are one unique among the millions of your fellow-creatures. The blackness of your heart is concealed by the purity of your face, and your real being so disguised that none suspect. If your real identity were discovered some prophets would declare that the end of the world was near.” And he laughed coarsely.