is love. Dear soul of my soul, you are as noble as your name, I know
it,--as great as you are beautiful. I am noble enough, I feel myself
great enough to force the world to receive you. Is it because I foresee
in you the source of endless, incessant pleasure, or because I find in
your soul those precious qualities which make a man forever love the one
woman? I do not know the cause, but this I know--that my love for you is
boundless. I know I can no longer live without you. Yes, life would be
unbearable unless you are ever with me."

"Ever with you!"

"Ah! Marie, will you not understand me?"

"You think to flatter me by the offer of your hand and name," she said,
with apparent haughtiness, but looking fixedly at the marquis as if to
detect his inmost thought. "How do you know you would love me six months
hence? and then what would be my fate? No, a mistress is the only woman
who is sure of a man's heart; duty, law, society, the interests of
children, are poor auxiliaries. If her power lasts it gives her joys and
flatteries which make the trials of life endurable. But to be your wife
and become a drag upon you,--rather than that, I prefer a passing love
and a true one, though death and misery be its end. Yes, I could be a
virtuous mother, a devoted wife; but to keep those instincts firmly in
a woman's soul the man must not marry her in a rush of passion. Besides,
how do I know that you will please me to-morrow? No, I will not bring
evil upon you; I leave Brittany," she said, observing hesitation in his
eyes. "I return to Fougeres now, where you cannot come to me--"

"I can! and if to-morrow you see smoke on the rocks of Saint-Sulpice
you will know that I shall be with you at night, your lover, your
husband,--what you will that I be to you; I brave all!"

"Ah! Alphonse, you love me well," she said, passionately, "to risk your
life before you give it to me."

He did not answer; he looked at her and her eyes fell; but he read in
her ardent face a passion equal to his own, and he held out his arms to
her. A sort of madness overcame her, and she let herself fall softly on
his breast, resolved to yield to him, and turn this yielding to great
results,--staking upon it her future happiness, which would become more
certain if she came victorious from this crucial test. But her head
had scarcely touched her lover's shoulder when a slight noise was heard
without. She tore herself from his arms as if suddenly awakened, and
s