away his fortune to his kinsfolk; and would retain of it, from that
moment, only a pittance for himself, and the means of honourable
subsistence for Clara. They were to meet in the same house a week later,
to arrange in what manner that sinful woman should be acquainted with
the facts.

The day came. The cousins arrived. Miranda did not appear. He had broken
down at the funeral in a fresh outburst of frenzied grief; but from this
he had had time to recover. Someone peeped into his room. There he
stood, by a blazing fire, a small empty coffer by his side, engaged in
reading some letters which he had taken from it. Whose they were, and
what the reading had told him, was quickly shown. He replaced them in
the box, plunged this in the fire; and reiterating the words, "Burn,
burn and purify my past!" held it there till both his hands had been
consumed; no sign of pain escaping him. He was dragged away by main
force, protesting against this hindrance to his salvation. "He was not
yet purified. SHE was not yet burned out of him." In his bed he raved
and struggled against the image which again rose before his eyes, which
again grew and formed itself in his flesh.

The delirium was followed by three months of exhaustion. The moment the
sick man could "totter" out of his room, he found his way to her whom he
had abjured, and who was in Paris calmly awaiting his return to her. She
came back with him. He introduced her to his kinsmen. "It was all
right," he said; "Clara would henceforth be--his brother; he would still
fulfil his bond." From this, however, he departed, in so far as not to
content himself with a pittance. He sold his business to the "cousinry,"
and, as they considered, on hard terms. He and Clara then returned to
Clairvaux.