Volume V Part 15 (2/2)
”No, he was too old; he trusted in me”
”Well, well, let me see the letter”
”I hope I haven't lost it”
”I hope not, to God”
”Here is your brother's proe; he wanted to be a Protestant”
”You may throw that into the fire”
”What is a Protestant?”
”I will tell you another time Give me the letter”
”Praised be God, here it is!”
”That's lucky; but it has no address”
My heart beat fast, as I opened it, and found, instead of an address, these words in Italian:
”To the most honest man of my acquaintance”
Could this be meant for me? I turned down the leaf, and read one word--Henriette! Nothing else; the rest of the paper was blank
At the sight of that word I was for a moment annihilated
”Io non mori, e non rimasi vivo”
Henriette! It was her style, eloquent in its brevity I recollected her last letter from Pontarlier, which I had received at Geneva, and which contained only one word--Farewell!
Henriette, whom I had loved so well, whom I seemed at that moment to love as well as ever ”Cruel Henriette,” said I to myself, ”you saw ht your charms would not have their old power, and feared lest I should discover that after all you were but mortal And yet I love you with all the ardour of my early passion Why did you not let me learn from your own mouth that you were happy? That is the only question I should have asked you, cruel fair one I should not have enquired whether you loved me still, for I feelthe most perfect of her sex Adorable Henriette, I will fly to you to-morrow, since you told me that I should be alelcohts over in my own mind, and fortified myself in this resolve; but at last I said,--
”No, your behaviour proves that you do not wish to see me now, and your wishes shall be respected; but I must see you once before I die”
Marcoline scarcely dared breathe to see ht, and I do not knohen I should have co that he reot ht ain by e her in a sort of ecstacy
”Do you know,” she said, ”you quite frightened me? You were as pale and still as a dead man, and remained for a quarter of an hour in a kind of swoon, the like of which I have never seen What is the reason? I knew that the countess was acquainted with you, but I should never have thought that her na effect”