"Can it be true, Clemence, you can be so generous? But no, no, I cannot believe in so much happiness; I had renounced it forever."
"You were wrong, you see."
"What a change! Is it a dream? Oh, tell me I am not mistaken."
"No, no, you are not mistaken."
"And, truly, your look is less cold; your voice almost falters. Oh, say, is it true? Am I not under an illusion?"
"No; for I also have need of pardon."
"You!"
"Have I not been cruel towards you! Ought I not to have thought that you must have needed a rare courage, a virtue more than human, to act differently from what you did? Isolated, unhappy, how resist the desire of seeking some consolation in a marriage which pleased you?
Alas! when one suffers, one is so disposed to believe in the generosity of others! Your error has been, until now, to count on mine. Well, henceforth I will try to give you reason."
"Oh, speak, speak once more!" said D"Harville, his hands clasped in a kind of ecstasy.
"Our existence is forever united. I will do all in my power to render your life less bitter."
"Is it you I hear?"
"I beg you do not be so much astonished; it gives me pain; it is a bitter censure on my past conduct. Who else should pity you? Who should lend you a friendly and helping hand, if not I? A happy inspiration I have received. I have reflected, well reflected, on the past, on the future. I have seen my errors, and I have found, I believe, the means to repair them."
"Your errors, poor wife?"
"Yes; I should have, the next day after our marriage, appealed to your honor, and frankly demanded a separation."
"Ah, Clemence, pity, pity!"
"Otherwise, since I accepted my position, I should have augmented it by submission, instead of causing you constant self-reproach by my haughty and taciturn coldness. I should have endeavored to console you for a fearful malady, by only remembering your misfortune. By degrees I should have become attached to my work of commiseration, by reason even of the cares, perhaps the sacrifices, which it would have cost me; your grat.i.tude had rewarded me, and then--but what is the matter?
You weep!"
"Yes, I weep--weep with joy. You do not know how many new emotions your words cause me. Oh, Clemence, let me weep!"
"Never more than at this moment have I comprehended how culpable I have been in chaining you to my sad destiny!"
"And never have I felt more decided to forget. These gentle tears that you shed make me acquainted with a happiness of which I was ignorant.
Courage, dear, courage; in default of a fortunate and smiling destiny, let us seek our satisfaction in the accomplishment of the serious duties that fate imposes. Let us be indulgent to one another; if we falter, let us regard the cradle of our child, let us concentrate on her all our affections, and we shall yet have some joys, melancholy and holy."
"An angel, she is an angel!" cried D"Harville, joining his hands and looking at his wife with affectionate admiration. "Oh! you do not know the pain and pleasure you cause me, Clemence! you do not know that your harshest words formerly, your most severe reproaches, alas! the most merited, have never so much overwhelmed me as this adorable, generous resignation, and yet, in spite of myself, you make hope spring up again. You do not know the future that I dare imagine."
"And you can have blind and entire faith in what I tell you, Albert.
This resolution is taken firmly; it shall never fail, I swear it to you. Before long I may give you new guarantees of my word."
"Guarantees?" cried D"Harville, more and more excited by happiness so unlooked for, "guarantees! have I need of them? Your look, your voice, this beaming expression of goodness which still graces you, the throbbings of my heart, all, all prove to me that what you say is true. But you know, Clemence, man is insatiable in his hopes," added the marquis. "Your n.o.ble and touching words give me courage to hope, yes, to hope what yesterday I regarded as an insensate dream."
"Albert, I swear to you I shall always be the most devoted of friends, the most tender of sisters; but nothing more. Pardon, pardon, if unknowingly my words have ever given you hopes which can never be realized."
"Never?" cried D"Harville, fixing on her a desperate and supplicating look.
"Never!" answered Clemence.
This single word, the tone of voice, revealed an irrevocable resolution. Clemence, brought back to n.o.ble resolutions by the influence of Rudolph, was firmly resolved to surround her husband with the most touching attentions; but she felt that she was incapable of ever loving him. An impression still stronger than fright, contempt, hatred, separated Clemence from her husband forever. It was a repugnance invincible. After a moment of mournful silence, D"Harville pa.s.sed his hand over his eyes, and said to his wife, bitterly:
"Pardon me for deceiving myself; pardon me for having abandoned myself to a hope, mad as it was foolish. Oh! I am very unfortunate!"
"My friend," said Clemence to him gently, "I do not wish to reproach you; yet do you reckon as nothing my promise to be for you the most tender of sisters? You will owe to the most devoted friendship attentions that love could not give you. Hope for better days. Until now you have found me almost indifferent to your sorrows; you shall see how I shall compa.s.sionate you, and what consolations you will find in my affection."
A servant entered, and said to Clemence, "His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Gerolstein asks if your ladyship will receive him?"
Clemence looked at her husband, who, recovering his coolness, said to her, "Of course." The servant retired.
"Pardon me, my friend," said Clemence; "I did not say that I would not receive. Besides, it is a long time since you have seen the prince; he will be happy to find you here. I shall, also, be much pleased to see him; yet I avow, that just now I am so agitated that I should have preferred to receive his visit some other day."
"I can comprehend it; but what could we do? Here he is." At the same moment, Rudolph was announced.
"I am a thousand times happy, madame, to have the honor to meet you,"
said Rudolph; "and I doubly appreciate my good fortune, since it also procures me the pleasure of seeing you, my dear Albert," added he, turning toward the marquis, whom he cordially shook by the hand.
"It is a long time since I have had the honor to pay your highness my respects."
"And whose fault is it, invisible lord? The last time I came to pay my respects to Madame d"Harville, I asked for you; you were absent. It is now three weeks that you have forgotten me; it is very wrong."
"Be merciless, your highness," said Clemence, smiling: "M. d"Harville is the more guilty, since he has for your highness the most profound respect, and he might make that doubted by his negligence."
"Well! see my vanity, madame; whatever D"Harville might do, it would always be impossible for me to doubt his affection; but I ought not to say this. I am encouraging him in such conduct."
"Believe me, your highness, that some unforeseen circ.u.mstances alone have prevented me from profiting oftener by your kindness toward me."
"Between ourselves, my dear Albert, I believe you a little too platonic in friendship; very sure that you are loved, you are not pliant enough to give or receive proofs of attachment."
Through a breach of etiquette, which rather annoyed Madame d"Harville, a servant entered, bringing a letter to the marquis. It was the anonymous denunciation of Sarah, which accused the prince of being the lover of Madame d"Harville.
The marquis, out of deference to the prince, pushed back with his hand the silver salver which the servant handed him, and said, in an undertone, "Not now, not now."
"My dear Albert," said the prince, in the most affectionate tone, "do you stand on ceremony with me?"
"But, your highness--"
"With the permission of Madame d"Harville, I beg you to read this letter!"
"I a.s.sure your highness that there is nothing pressing."
"Once more, Albert, read this letter!"
"But--"
"I entreat you--I wish it."