The dignity of conscious integrity, and
the "fear of fear," a beholder who could discern the tokens might have
perceived in him.
"Oh, then, who can tell? Did he not pray that he might not be led into
temptation?"
"Yes," Victor replied, more troubled than scornful,--"yes, and allowed
himself to be led at last."
"But if you should go away"----
"Would not that be flying from danger?" he asked, proudly.
"Nay, might it not be doing with your might what you found to do, that
you might not be led into temptation?"
"And you are afraid, that, if I stay here, I shall yield to them."
"You say you are not certain, Victor. You repeat Mazurier's words."
"Yet shall I remain. No, I will never run away."
The pride of the young fellow, and the consternation occasioned by the
recreancy of his superior, his belief in the doctrines he had confessed
with Mazurier, and the time-serving of the latter, had evidently thrown
asunder the guards of his peace, and produced a sad state of confusion.
"It were better to run away," said Jacqueline, not pausing to choose the
word,--"far better than to stay and defy the Devil, and then find that
you could not resist him, Victor. Oh, if we could go, as Elsie said,
back to Domremy,--anywhere away from this cruel Meaux!"
"Have you, then, gained nothing, Jacqueline?"
"Everything. But to lose it,--oh, I cannot afford that!"
"Let us stand together, then.
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