her and not far from the door.

"What is the matter?" asked Felicien anxiously.

She did not reply, but breathed with great difficulty. Then, seized with
a trembling, she could no longer bear her weight on her feet, but was
forced to sit down.

"Do not be anxious; it is nothing. I only want to rest for a minute and
then we will go."

They were silent. She continued to look round the room as if she had
forgotten some valuable object there, but could not tell what it was.
It was a regret, at first slight, but which rapidly increased and filled
her heart by degrees, until it almost stifled her. She could no longer
collect her thoughts. Was it this mass of whiteness that kept her back?
She had always adored white, even to such a degree as to collect bits of
silk and revel over them in secret.

"One moment, just one moment more, and we will go away, my dear
Seigneur."

But she did not even make an effort to rise. Very anxious, he again
knelt before her.

"Are you suffering, my dear? Cannot I do something to make you feel
better? If you are shivering because you are cold, I will take your
little feet in my hands, and will so warm them that they will grow
strong and be able to run."

She shook her head as she replied:

"No, no, I am not cold. I could walk. But please wait a little, just a
single minute."

He saw well that invisible chains seemed again to have taken possession
of her limbs, and, little by little, were attaching themselves so
strongly to her that very soon, perhaps, it would be quite impossible
for him to draw her away. Yet, if he did not take her from there at
once, if they did not flee together, he thought of the inevitable
contest with his father on the morrow, of the distressing interview
before which he had recoiled for weeks past. Then he became pressing,
and besought her most ardently.

"Come, dear, the highways are not light at this hour; the carriage will
bear us away in the darkness, and we will go on and on, cradled in each
other's arms, sleeping as if warmly covered with down, not fearing the
night's freshness; and when the day dawns we will continue our route
in the sunshine, as we go still farther on, until we reach the country
where people are always happy. No one will know us there; we will live
by ourselves, lost in some great garden, having no other care than to
love each other more deeply than ever at the coming of each new day. We
shall find flowers as large as trees, fruits sw