"Oh, do you remember what he said to John,--what he prayed in that room? Oh, Victor, what does it mean?"
"It means what cannot be spoken,--what I dare not say or think."
"Not that we are wrong, mistaken, Victor?"
"No, Jacqueline, never! it can never mean that! Whatever we may do with the Truth, we cannot make it false. We may act like cowards, unworthy, ungrateful, ignorant; but the Truth will remain, Jacqueline."
"How can I tell, Jacqueline? The last time I saw Martial Mazurier, he would have said nobler and more loving words than I can command. But with my own eyes I saw him walking at liberty in streets where liberty for him to walk could be bought only at an infamous price."
"Is there such danger for all men who believe with John Leclerc, and with--with you, Victor?"
"Then you must go away. You must not stay in Meaux," she said, quickly, in a low, determined voice.
"Jacqueline, I must remain in Meaux," he answered, as quickly, with flushed face and flashing eyes. The dignity of conscious integrity, and the "fear of fear," a beholder who could discern the tokens might have perceived in him.
"Oh, then, who can tell? Did he not pray that he might not be led into temptation?"
"Yes," Victor replied, more troubled than scornful,--"yes, and allowed himself to be led at last."
"Would not that be flying from danger?" he asked, proudly.
"Nay, might it not be doing with your might what you found to do, that you might not be led into temptation?"
"And you are afraid, that, if I stay here, I shall yield to them."
"You say you are not certain, Victor. You repeat Mazurier's words."
"Yet shall I remain. No, I will never run away."
The pride of the young fellow, and the consternation occasioned by the recreancy of his superior, his belief in the doctrines he had confessed with Mazurier, and the time-serving of the latter, had evidently thrown asunder the guards of his peace, and produced a sad state of confusion.
"It were better to run away," said Jacqueline, not pausing to choose the word,--"far better than to stay and defy the Devil, and then find that you could not resist him, Victor. Oh, if we could go, as Elsie said, back to Domrémy,--anywhere away from this cruel Meaux!"
"Have you, then, gained nothing, Jacqueline?"