"Why does not your Reverence go and see her?"
He wrung his hands unconsciously and stammered: "I hardly know … it is too late.…"
"Yes, come, come!" urged the servant. "My little mistress will be very glad, and it will give her courage to see you."
"It is the devil speaking by your mouth," thought Paul, but unconsciously he followed the girl. He had gripped Antiochus by the shoulder and was drawing him along as a support, and the boy went with him like a plank of safety upon the waves. So they crossed the square and went as far as the presbytery, the servant running on ahead, but turning every few steps to look back at them, the whites of her eyes gleaming in the moonlight. Seen thus at night, the black figure with the dark and mask-like face had truly something diabolical about it, and Paul followed it with a vague sense of fear, leaning on Antiochus's shoulder as he walked and feeling like Tobit in his blindness.
On passing the presbytery door the boy tried
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