"Many of them are beautiful, but none so beautiful as you, Melisse,"
he replied, leaning near to her, his eyes shining. "Do you know that
you are beautiful?"
His words frightened her so much that she bowed her head to hide the
signs of it in her face. Jan had often spoken those same words--a
thousand times he had told her that she was beautiful--but there bad
never been this fluttering of her heart before.
There were few things which Iowaka and she did not hold in secret
between them, and a day or two later Melisse told her friend what
Dixon had said. For the first time Iowaka abused the confidence placed
in her, and told Jean.
"Le diable!" gritted Jean, his face blackening.
He said no more until night, when the children were asleep. Then he
drew Iowaka close beside him on a bench near the stove, and asked
carelessly:
"Mon ange, if one makes an oath to the blessed Virgin, and breaks it,
what happens?"
He evaded the startled look in his wife's big black eyes.
"It means that one will be for ever damned unless he confesses to a
priest soon after, doesn't it ma cherie? And if there is no priest
nearer than four hundred miles, it is a dangerous thing to do, is it
not? But--" He did not wait for an answer. "If one might have the oath
broken, and not do it himself, what then?"
"I don't know," said Iowaka simply, staring at him in amazed
questioning.
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