`I thought so!' said Raoul, compressing his lips. `But then why, when you saw me in your room, at your feet, reminding you that I had rescued your scarf from the sea, why did you answer as though you did not know me and also why did you laugh?'

The tone of these questions was so rough that Christine stared at Raoul without replying. The young man himself was aghast at the sudden quarrel which he had dared to raise at the very moment when he had resolved to speak words of gentleness, love and submission to Christine. A husband, a lover with all rights, would talk no differently to a wife, a mistress who had offended him. But he had gone too far and saw no other way out of the ridiculous position than to behave odiously.

`You don't answer!' he said angrily and unhappily. `Well, I will answer for you. It was because there was some one in the room who was in your way, Christine, some one that you did not wish to know that you could be interested in any one else!'

`If any one was in my way, my friend,' Christine broke in coldly, `if any one was in my way, that evening, it was yourself, since I told you to leave the room!'

`Yes, so that you might remain with the other!'

`What are you saying, monsieur?' asked the girl excitedly. `And to what other do you refer?'

`To the man to whom you said, `I sing only for you!...to-night I gave you my soul and I am dead!''

Christine seized Raoul's arm and clutched it with a strength which no one would have suspected in so frail a creature.

`Then you were listening behind the door?'

`Yes, because I love you everything....And I heard everything....'

`You heard what?'

And the young girl, becoming strangely calm, released Raoul's arm.

`He said to you, `Christine, you must love me!''

At these words, a deathly pallor spread over Christine's face, dark rings formed round her eyes, she staggered and seemed on the point of swooning. Raoul darted forward, with arms outstretched, but Christine had overcome her passing faintness and said, in a low voice:

`Go on! Go on! Tell me all you heard!'

At an utter loss to understand, Raoul answered: `I heard him reply, when you said you had given him your soul, `Your soul is a beautiful thing, child, and I thank you. No emperor ever received so fair a gift. The angels wept tonight.''

Christine carried her hand to her heart, a prey to indescribable emotion. Her eyes stared before her like a madwoman's. Raoul was terror-stricken. But suddenly Christine's eyes moistened and two great tears trickled, like two pearls, down her ivory cheeks.

`Christine!'

`Raoul!'

The young man tried to take her in his arms, but she escaped and fled in great disorder.