"Well,
where was she, and who was she?"
"You must know: you are in Madame Le Maitre's confidence; you travel
from door to door, day in and day out; you know everybody and everything
upon these islands."
"I assure you," said the priest, "that I never heard of such a person."
CHAPTER XIII.
WHITE BIRDS; WHITE SNOW; WHITE THOUGHTS.
By degrees Caius was obliged to give up his last lingering belief in the
existence of the lady he loved. It was a curious position to be in, for
he loved her none the less. Two months of work and thought for the
diseased people had slipped away, and by the mere lapse of time, as well
as by every other proof, he had come to know that there was no maiden in
any way connected with Madame Le Maitre who answered to the visions he
had seen, or who might be wooed by the man who had ceased to care for
all other women for her sweet sake.
After Caius had arrived the epidemic had become worse, as it had been
prophesied it would, when the people began to exclude the winter air
from their houses. In almost every family upon the little isle there was
a victim, and Caius, under the compelling force of the orders which
Madame Le Maitre never gave and the wishes she never expressed, became
nurse as well as doctor, using what skill he had in every possible
office for the sick, working early and late, and many a time the night
through.
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