tips of his
toes in order to reach my ear, for I was taller than he, he pronounced
my first name: 'Genevieve!' in such a gentle, sweet, tender tone that I
trembled all over. I stammered: 'Let us return! let us return!' He said
no more and followed me; but as we were going up the steps of the
porch, he stopped me, saying: 'You know, if ever you leave me, I'll kill
myself.'

"This time I understood that I had gone too far, and I became quite
reserved. One day, as he was reproaching me for this, I answered: 'You
are now too old for jesting and too young for serious love. I'll wait.'

"I thought that this would end the matter. In the autumn he was sent to
a boarding-school. When he returned the following summer I was engaged
to be married. He understood immediately, and for a week he became so
pensive that I was quite anxious.

"On the morning of the ninth day I saw a little paper under my door as
I got up. I seized it, opened it and read: 'You have deserted me and you
know what I said. It is death to which you have condemned me. As I do
not wish to be found by another than you, come to the park just where I
told you last year that I loved you and look in the air.'

"I thought that I should go mad. I dressed as quickly as I could and
ran wildly to the place that he had mentioned. His little cap was on the
ground in the mud. It had been raining all night. I raised my eyes and
saw something swinging among the leaves, for the wind was blowing a
gale.

"I don't know what I did after that. I must have screamed at first, then
fainted and fallen, and finally have run to the chateau. The next thing
that I remember I was in bed, with my mother sitting beside me.

"I thought that I had dreamed all this in a frightful nightmare. I
stammered: 'And what of him, what of him, Gontran?' There was no answer.
It was true!

"I did not dare see him again, but I asked for a lock of his blond hair.
Here--here it is!"

And the old maid stretched out her trembling hand in a despairing
gesture. Then she blew her nose several times, wiped her eyes and
continued:

"I broke off my marriage--without saying why. And I--I always have
remained the--the widow of this thirteen-year-old boy." Then her head
fell on her breast and she wept for a long time.

As the guests were retiring for the night a large man, whose quiet she
had disturbed, whispered in his neighbor's ear: "Isn't it unfortunate
to, be so sentimental?"

THE ENGLISHMAN OF