and
heir to the house of Herouville, to allow them to be equal; she had as
yet no conception of the ennobling of love. The naive creature thought
with no ambition of a place where every other girl would have longed to
seat herself; she saw the obstacles only. Loving, without as yet knowing
what it was to love, she only felt herself distant from her pleasure,
and longed to get nearer to it, as a child longs for the golden grapes
hanging high above its head. To a girl whose emotions were stirred at
the sight of a flower, and who had unconsciously foreseen love in the
chants of the liturgy, how sweet and how strong must have been the
feelings inspired in her breast the previous night by the sight of
the young seigneur's feebleness, which seemed to reassure her own. But
during the night Etienne had been magnified to her mind; she had made
him a hope, a power; she had placed him so high that now she despaired
of ever reaching him.

"Will you permit me to sometimes enter your domain?" asked the duke,
lowing his eyes.

Seeing Etienne so timid, so humble,--for he, on his part, had magnified
Beauvouloir's daughter,--Gabrielle was embarrassed with the sceptre he
placed in her hands; and yet she was profoundly touched and flattered
by such submission. Women alone know what seduction the respect of
their master and lover has for them. Nevertheless, she feared to deceive
herself, and, curious like the first woman, she wanted to know all.

"I thought you promised yesterday to teach me music," she answered,
hoping that music might be made a pretext for their meetings.

If the poor child had known what Etienne's life really was, she would
have spared him that doubt. To him his word was the echo of his mind,
and Gabrielle's little speech caused him infinite pain. He had come
with his heart full, fearing some cloud upon his daylight, and he met
a doubt. His joy was extinguished; back into his desert he plunged, no
longer finding there the flowers with which he had embellished it. With
that prescience of sorrows which characterizes the angel charged
to soften them--who is, no doubt, the Charity of heaven--Gabrielle
instantly divined the pain she had caused. She was so vividly aware of
her fault that she prayed for the power of God to lay bare her soul
to Etienne, for she knew the cruel pang a reproach or a stern look was
capable of causing; and she artlessly betrayed to him these clouds as
they rose in her soul,--the golden swathings