or reflects another. The
Duchess, with every motive for reading the depths of Armand's heart, was
all eyes; and Armand, all unsuspicious of the mirror, brushed away two
tears as they fell. Her whole future lay in those two tears. When he
turned round again to help her to rise, she was standing before him,
sure of love. Her pulses must have throbbed fast when he spoke with the
firmness she had known so well how to use of old while she played with
him.

"I spare you, madame. All that has taken place shall be as if it had
never been, you may believe me. But now, let us bid each other goodbye.
I like to think that you were sincere in your coquetries on your sofa,
sincere again in this outpouring of your heart. Good-bye. I feel that
there is no faith in you left in me. You would torment me again; you
would always be the Duchess, and----But there, good-bye, we shall never
understand each other.

"Now, what do you wish?" he continued, taking the tone of a master of
the ceremonies--"to return home, or to go back to Mme de Serizy's
ball? I have done all in my power to prevent any scandal. Neither your
servants nor anyone else can possibly know what has passed between us
in the last quarter of an hour. Your servants have no idea that you have
left the ballroom; your carriage never left Mme de Serizy's courtyard;
your brougham may likewise be found in the court of your own hotel.
Where do you wish to be?"

"What do you counsel, Armand?"

"There is no Armand now, Mme la Duchesse. We are strangers to each
other."

"Then take me to the ball," she said, still curious to put Armand's
power to the test. "Thrust a soul that suffered in the world, and must
always suffer there, if there is no happiness for her now, down into
hell again. And yet, oh my friend, I love you as your bourgeoises love;
I love you so that I could come to you and fling my arms about your neck
before all the world if you asked it off me. The hateful world has not
corrupted me. I am young at least, and I have grown younger still. I am
a child, yes, your child, your new creature. Ah! do not drive me forth
out of my Eden!"

Armand shook his head.

"Ah! let me take something with me, if I go, some little thing to wear
tonight on my heart," she said, taking possession of Armand's glove,
which she twisted into her handkerchief.

"No, I am _not_ like all those depraved women. You do not know the
world, and so you cannot know my worth. You shall know it now! Ther