future prospects the river had been high in flood during the week and the grass which towards the water was still wet and heavy to the tread but limited his walk to the broad summit of the bank being aware that the river just below flowed over a muddy into which should a man chance to fall it would be death and fast burial at one and the same moment and set a rather value on his own life as most men do whose lives are of no sort of consequence to the world so he was careful to walk where there was the least danger of the master christian lit an excellent cigar and puffed the faint blue rings of smoke out into the clear atmosphere he was in a very agreeable frame of mind he was and clever in his way � one of those to whom the yankee term would apply in its fullest sense � and he had the happy of forgetting his own mistakes and follies and his own sins with as much ease as though he were one of the blood royal of nations vices he had in plenty in common with most men � except that his particular form of was distinguished by a and cruelty in which there was no touch of quality as a child he had loved to tear the wings off flies and other insects and one of his keenest delights in boyhood had been to watch the of into whose soft bodies he would stick long pins � the would live under this treatment four and five hours � sometimes longer and while observing their agonies he enjoyed that contented mind which is a perpetual feast now that he was a man he delighted in human beings after the same methods applied mentally whenever he could find a part through which to thrust a sharp spear of pain the eminent cardinal he mused now what is he to me i if i could force the of into high favour at the instead of this foolish old saint it would be a better thing for my future after all it was at that the miracle was performed � the city should have some credit i and bon pre has a he is growing old and feeble � possibly he is losing his wits and then is that boy he started violently as a fantastic shadow suddenly crossed his path in the moonlight and a peal of violent laughter assailed his ears en in mon � � grace a and the creature known as la stood before him her long black hair streaming over her bare chest and gaunt arms her eyes dilated and glowing with the mingled light of madness and despair turned a livid white in the moon rays � his blood grew icy cold what i after two years of about the streets of to m tiu this wretched the master christian woman whom he had and betrayed had she found him at last i when did you come back from the fair cried the girl i lost you there you know � and you managed to lose me � but i have waited � waited patiently for news of you and when none came i still waited making myself beautiful see � and she thrust her fingers through her long hair throwing it about in disorder than ever you thought you had killed me � and you were glad � it makes all men glad to kill women when they can but i � i was not killed so easily � i have lived for this night � just for this night listen and she sprang forward and threw herself violently against his breast do you love me now tell me again � as you told me at the fair � you love me he staggered under her weight � and tried for a moment to thrust her back but she held him in a grip of iron looking up at him with her great feverish dark eyes and grasping his shoulders with thin burning hands he trembled � e was beginning to grow horribly afraid what devil had sent this woman whom he had ruined so long as two years ago across his path to night would it be possible to soothe her � he began yes yes say it again she cried wildly say it again sweet � sweet and tenderly as you said it then poor your pale ugly face seemed the face of a god to her once because e thought you loved her � we all find men so beautiful when we think they love us yes � your cold eyes and cruel lips and hard brow � it was quite a different face at the fair so was mine a different face � but you � you have made mine what it is now � look at it what � you thought you could murder a woman and never be found out you thought you could kill poor and that no one would ever know hush hush said his teeth chattering with the cold of his inward terror i never killed you � i loved you � yes listen for she was looking up at him with an attentive almost sane expression in her eyes i meant to write to you after the fair � and come to you hush hush said the girl let me hear this i� the master christian this is strange news he meant to write to me yet he let me die by inches in an agony of waiting � till i dropped into the darkness where i am now he meant to come to me oh it was very easy to come if he had chosen to come � before i wandered away into all this strangeness � this shadow � this confusion and fire but you see it is too late now and 