"Then make your confession to God in your heart now. You must be in a state of grace when you speak the oath."
The child closed her eyes, and as the old man watched her, he could see the lips framing the words of her spiritual confession.
Juliette made the sign of the cross, then opened her eyes and looked at her father.
"I am ready, father," she said; "I hope God has forgiven me the little sins of yesterday."
"Will you swear, my child?"
"What, father?"
"That you will avenge your brother's death on his murderer?"
"But, father"
"Swear it, my child!"
"How can I fulfil that oath, father?—I don't understand"
"God will guide you, my child. When you are older you will understand."
For a moment Juliette still hesitated. She was just on that borderland between childhood and womanhood when all the sensibilities, the nervous system, the emotions, are strung to their highest pitch.
Throughout her short life she had worshipped her father with a whole-hearted, passionate devotion, which had completely blinded her to his weakening faculties and the feebleness of his mind.
