hung above her head. The Abbe, who had followed her as quickly as
he could, was naively looking for a peep-hole between the timbers of
the huge doors.

A minute later the bell swung slowly, and gave a single clang which
echoed beneath the vaulted roof, and in the hollow of the empty
towers on either side.

"Marie, Marie!" cried a gay girlish voice from without. "Open at
once. It is I."

"There," said Marie, in a whisper. "It is Mademoiselle, who has
returned from the good Sisters. And the story that you told of the
fever at Saintes is true."



CHAPTER XIII. WITHIN THE GATES



The great bell hanging inside the gates of Gemosac was silent for
two days after the return of Juliette de Gemosac from her fever-
stricken convent school, at Saintes.

But on the third day, soon after nightfall, it rang once more,
breaking suddenly in on the silence of the shadowy courts and
gardens, bidding the frogs in the tank be still with a soft, clear
voice, only compassed by the artificers who worked in days when
silver was little accounted of in the forging of a bell.