"Now, master," said Gautran, having finished munching.
"Now, Gautran," said the Advocate, "why do you come to me?"
"I belong to you," replied Gautran. "You gave me my life and my liberty. You had some meaning in it. I don't ask you what it is, for you will tell me only what you choose to tell me. I am yours, master, body and soul."
"And soul?" questioned the Advocate ironically.
"So long," said Gautran, crossing himself, "as you do not ask me to do anything to imperil my salvation."
"Is it not already imperilled? Murderer!"
"I have done nothing that I cannot buy off with masses. Ask the priests. If I could not get money any other way, to save myself I would rob a church."
"Admirable!" exclaimed the Advocate. "You interest me, Gautran. How did you obtain admission into the grounds?"
"Over the wall at the back. It is a mercy I did not break my bones."
"I was told--and told, as well, that you lived in this house."
"As I ran from Madeline--she has left me forever, I hope--I came upon a man who, for some purpose of his own, was lingering on a hill a little distance from here. I sought company, and was glad of his. I made up my mind to pass my night near something human, and did not intend to leave him. But when he said that yonder was the house in which the great Advocate lived, and when he pointed out your study window, I gave him the slip, knowing I could do better than remain with him. That is the truth, master."
"No, I never saw him before; I saw but little of him as it was, the night was so dark; but I know voices when I hear them. His voice was strange to me."
"How happened it, then, that you conversed about me?"
"I can't remember exactly how it came about. He gave me some brandy out of a flask--not such liquor as yours, master, but I was thankful for it--and I asked him if he had ever been followed by the spirit of a dead woman. He questioned me about this woman, asking if she was fair and beautiful, whether she had met her death in the Rhone, whether her name was Madeline. Yes, he called her up before me and I was spellbound. When I came to my proper senses he was talking to himself about a great Advocate in the house he was staring at, and I said there was only one great Advocate--you who set me free--and I asked him if you lived in the house. He said yes, and that the lights I saw were the lights in your study windows. Upon that I left him, suddenly and secretly, and made my way here."