"You think not, Madeleine?"
This question was asked with an eagerness which would have betrayed Adolphine"s secret, if her maid had not already guessed it.
"But f.a.n.n.y isn"t married!" murmured Adolphine sadly, a moment later.
"Well, mamzelle, for my part, I am glad of it! She"d have kicked up altogether too much dust if she had been a countess."
"But when will Gustave come back?"
"Why, you don"t suppose that he will still want to marry your sister, do you?"
"Why not? He loved her so much!"
"Well, I"ll bet that he won"t. Think of it, mamzelle, after two such affronts as that! for you told me it was the second time she had broken with him. Why, he would have to be a downright fool for that. Is Monsieur Gustave a fool?"
"Oh, no! far from it."
"Well, then----"
At that moment the bell rang; Adolphine started, without knowing why, and Madeleine cried:
"There, suppose it was him? Speak of the devil----"
It was, in fact, Gustave, and Madeleine"s face was wreathed in smiles when she announced him to her mistress. The young man entered with more or less embarra.s.sment, caused by Cherami"s disclosures. But Adolphine held out her hand, and he pressed it in his with such force that the girl was deeply moved; for Gustave had never manifested so much pleasure at sight of her.
In a moment she spied the scar, and exclaimed in dismay:
"Mon Dieu! Monsieur Gustave, you are wounded!"
"No; it is all healed."
"But you surely have been terribly wounded. What was it?"
"A sword-cut."
"You have had a duel?"
"Yes, with an Irish officer. I was in London then."
"And why? For--whom did you fight?"
"Oh! it was for a mere trifle. A quarrel following a hearty breakfast."
"Mon Dieu! if you had been killed!"
"I shouldn"t be with you now."
"Was the wound serious?"
"Yes, it kept me housed six weeks. But for that, I should have been at home more than a month ago."
"More than a month! Ah! then you were anxious to return at once as soon as you learned--what had happened?"
"What do you mean?"
"Why, the thing that caused--oh! surely you know?"
"No, I do not know. I intended to return, because I had finished my uncle"s business, because I was horribly bored in England, and because I had no reason for staying away from Paris any longer."
"Was that all?"
"To be sure. What other reason are you thinking of, pray?"
"Don"t you know that the Comte de la Beriniere is dead?"
"Certainly I know it."
"And that he died before he had married my sister?"
"I know all that."
"You do? and that wasn"t what brought you home?"
"Oh! mademoiselle, is it possible that you think that I can love your sister still! Oh, no! you cannot think it, for you would despise me if you had such an opinion of me as that."
"What! can it be possible? Gustave, Monsieur Gustave, you no longer love my sister? Oh! what joy! Mon Dieu! I don"t know what I am saying. I mean that I think you will be happier now; and you have been sad and unhappy so long!"
"Yes, for a long, long time. And don"t you think that I deserve to be rewarded for my constancy by finding at last a heart that does understand me, a woman who has--a little love for me?"
"A little? Oh! you will find one who loves you dearly! At least, I should think so, because you deserve it so well!"
"Dear Adolphine! Oh! I beg your pardon, mademoiselle, for presuming still to address you in that way."
"Why, it doesn"t offend me--far from it."
"You have always been so kind to me! If you knew what pleasure it gives me at this moment to be sitting beside you again, looking at you, and reading what is written in your lovely, soft eyes! Oh! do not look away!
Let me seek in them the hope of a sincere affection and an untroubled happiness!"
"Oh! mon Dieu! you make me tremble. Oh! pray don"t say such things to me, if you don"t mean them; for, you see, I too have been unhappy for such a long time! I have suffered in silence; for I dared not avow my sentiments; and I had to look on at the happiness of another, who was loved, adored, although she did not deserve such good-fortune; and I--I had to conceal all that I felt!"
Gustave seized Adolphine"s hands and fell at her feet.
"Then it is true!" he cried; "you do love me? Ah! my whole life will be too short to pay you for this love! How many days of happiness I owe you in exchange for the torments I have caused you!"
"But it wasn"t your fault, Gustave; you could not guess that I loved you. Besides, you loved my sister then; but now you don"t love her any more, do you? Oh! tell me again that you don"t love her!"
"As if it were possible for me to love her! Ah! my heart does not divide its allegiance, and now it is yours, yours only!"
"Mon Dieu! I must be dreaming, I am so happy!--Madeleine! Madeleine!