s of joy together as they embraced each other with
the purest of feelings: he was overcome with pity that she was so worn
by grief and illness that she seemed like a mere shadow in his arms. In
the enchantment of her surprise she remained half-paralysed, trembling
from exhaustion, radiant with spiritual beauty, as she lay back in her
great easy chair, so physically weary that she could not raise herself
without falling again, but intoxicated with this supreme contentment.

"Ah, dear Seigneur, my only remaining wish is gratified. I longed to see
you before death came."

He lifted up his head, as with a despairing movement, and said:

"Do not speak of dying. It shall not be. I am here, and I love you."

She smiled angelically.

"I am not afraid to die now that you have assured me of your affection.
The idea no longer terrifies me. I could easily fall asleep in this way,
while leaning on your shoulders. Tell me once more that you love me."

"I love you as deeply to-day as I loved you yesterday, and as I will
love you on the morrow. Do not doubt it for one moment, for it is for
eternity! Oh, yes, we will love each other for ever and ever."

Angelique was enraptured, and with vague eyes looked directly before
her, as if seeing something beyond the cold whiteness of the chamber.
But evidently she aroused herself, as if just awaking from sleep. In
the midst of this great felicity which had appeased her, she had now had
time for reflection. The true facts of the case astonished her.

"You have loved me! Yet why did you not at once come to see me?"

"Your parents said that you cared for me no longer. I also nearly died
when learning that. At last, I was determined to know the whole truth,
and was sent away from the house, the door being absolutely closed
against me, and I was forbidden to return."

"Then they shut the door in your face? Yet my mother told me that you
did not love me, and I could but believe her, since having seen you
several times with that young lady, Mademoiselle Claire, I thought
naturally you were obeying your father."

"No. I was waiting. But it was cowardly on my part thus to tremble
before him. My great mistake has been to allow the matter to go so
far; for my duty was to have trusted only in you, to have insisted upon
seeing you personally, and to have acted with you."

There was a short silence. Angelique sat erect for an instant, as if
she had received a blow, and her expression grew cold a