It was not
much more than a whisper, and yet it was filled with a joyous exultation.
He laid the violin down when he was finished, and laughed, and filled his
pipe, and lighted it.
"It is good for a man's soul to know that a woman loves him, and has been
true," he said. "Mon pere, will you tell me again what she said? It is
strength for me--and I must soon be going."
McDougall repeated, as if under a strain from which he could not free
himself:
"She came to me late last night, unknown to Dupont. She had received your
message, and knew you were coming. And I tell you again that I saw
something in her eyes which makes me afraid! She told me, then, that her
father killed Bedore in a quarrel, and that she married Dupont to save
him from the law--and kneeling there, with her hand on the cross at her
breast, she swore that each day of her life she has let Dupont know that
she hates him, and that she loves you, and that some day Reese Beaudin
would return to avenge her. Yes, she told him that--I know it by what I
saw in her eyes. With that cross clutched in her fingers she swore that
she had suffered torture and shame, and that never a word of it had she
whispered to a living soul, that she might turn the passion of Jacques
Dupont's black heart into a great hatred. And today--Jacques Dupont will
kill you!"
"I shall die hard," Reese repeated again.
He tucked the violin in its buckskin covering under his arm.
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