must cry out in
wild abandon, as though the tears must come and fill her eyes, as
though she were not brave at all. Would not the _bon Dieu_ help her
now! She drew her hands away from him, and turned from him for an
instant. "You can never come back, Jean; you can never come back to
the old life. You will go on and on, further and further away from it,
making a great name for yourself, and your friends will be all like the
_grand monde_ who have been here, and I know that I cannot go into that
life, too--I understand that all so well. And--and so, Jean, I have
come to tell you that you are free."

"Free!" he cried--and gazed at her in stupefaction. The colour came
and went from his face. He had not thought of this from her! And yet
it was what he had said in his soul--if only there were nothing between
Marie-Louise and himself! It was as if a weight had been lifted from
him--only replacing the weight was a miserable pricking of conscience.
"Free! What are you saying?"

And now the dark eyes were bright and deep and unfaltering--and
suddenly she drew her form erect, and her head was thrown proudly back.

"Free, Jean, because you must not think any more of me; because you are
to be a great man in your country and it is your duty to go, for France
has called you, and France is first; because"--her voice, quivering,
yet triumphant, was ringing through the room--"because I give you to
France, Jean! You do not belong to me now--you belong to France!"

For a moment he did not speak. There seemed a thousand emotions,
soul-born, surging upon him. Her words thrilled him; it was over;
there was relief; it was done. She had gone where he had not dared to
go in his thoughts--to the end. He would never come back, she said.
He was free. But he could not have her think that he could let her go
like that!

"No, no, Marie-Louise!" he burst out. "Do you think that even if I
belonged to France, even if all my life were changed, that I could ever
forget you, that I could forget Bernay-sur-Mer, and all the people and
my life here?"

"Yes," she said, "you will forget."

"Never!" he asserted fiercely.

"Jean"--her voice was low again--"it is the _bon Dieu_ last night who
has made me understand. I do not know what is in the new world that
you are going to, only that you will be one of the greatest and perhaps
one of the richest men in France. And I understand you better, Jean, I
think, than you understand yourself.