lique returns, or is
capable of returning, love like yours? She is like the rest of us, weak
and fickle, merely human, and not at all the divinity a man in his fancy
worships when in love with a woman." It was in vain, however, for Amelie
to try to persuade her brother of that.

"What care I, Amelie, so long as Angelique is not weak and fickle to
me?" answered he; "but she will think her tardy lover is both weak and
fickle unless I put in a speedy appearance at the Maison des Meloises!"
He rose up as if to depart, still holding his sister by the hand.

Amelie's tears flowed silently in the darkness. She was not willing to
plant a seed of distrust in the bosom of her brother, yet she remembered
bitterly and indignantly what Angelique had said of her intentions
towards the Intendant. Was she using Le Gardeur as a foil to set off her
attractions in the eyes of Bigot?

"Brother!" said Amelie, "I am a woman, and comprehend my sex better than
you. I know Angelique's far-reaching ambition and crafty ways. Are you
sure, not in outward persuasion but in inward conviction, that she loves
you as a woman should love the man she means to marry?"

Le Gardeur felt her words like a silver probe that searched his heart.
With all his unbounded devotion, he knew Angelique too well not to feel
a pang of distrust sometimes, as she showered her coquetries upon every
side of her. It was the overabundance of her love, he said, but he
thought it often fell like the dew round Gideon's fleece, refreshing all
the earth about it, but leaving the fleece dry. "Amelie!" said he, "you
try me hard, and tempt me too, my sister, but it is useless. Angelique
may be false as Cressida to other men, she will not be false to me! She
has sworn it, with her hand in mine, before the altar of Notre Dame. I
would go down to perdition with her in my arms rather than be a crowned
king with all the world of women to choose from and not get her."

Amelie shuddered at his vehemence, but she knew how useless was
expostulation. She wisely refrained, deeming it her duty, like a good
sister, to make the best of what she could not hinder. Some jasmines
overhung the seat; she plucked a handful, and gave them to him as they
rose to return to the house.

"Take them with you, Le Gardeur," said she, giving him the flowers,
which she tied into a wreath; "they will remind Angelique that she has a
powerful rival in your sister's love."

He took them as they walked slowly back