Part 10 (1/2)
She hed unpleasantly
”Yes,of you 'Ah! A card! Mr Paul Lamar Show him in, Julie But no, let him wait--I am not at home' That, my friend, would be in Paris”
I stared at her
”For Heaven's sake, Desiree, what nonsense is this?”
She disregarded my question as she continued:
”Yes, that is hoould be Why do I talk thus? The mountains hypnotize me The snow, the solitude--for I am alone Your brother, what is he? And you, Paul, are scarcely aware of hed it away And as for the future--look! Do you see that waste of snow and ice, glittering, cold, pitiless? Ha! Well, that is rave”
I tried to believe that she was low in her eyes did not proceed froaze across the trackless waste and, shi+vering, demanded:
”What morbid fancy is this, Desiree? Come, it is scarcely pleasant”
She rose and crossed the yard or so of ground between us to my side I felt her eyes above me, and try as I would I could not look up to meet them Then she spoke, in a voice low but curiously distinct:
”Paul, I love you”
”My dear Desiree!”
”I love you”
At once I was , and I dislike to spoil a good scene So I hed, placing her hand onHave I chosen this place for a flirtation? Before, I could not speak; now you must know There have been many men in my life, Paul; some fools, some not so, but none like you I have never said, 'I love you' I say it now Once you held my hand--you have never kissed , profoundly fatuous, and made as if to put my arm around her
”A kiss? Is that all, Desiree? Well--”
But I had mistaken her tone and overreached Not a muscle did she move, but I felt myself repulsed as by a barrier of steel She reaze that left me naked of levity and cynicism and the veneer of life; and finally she murmured in a voice sith pain:
”Must you kill me ords, Paul? I did not mean that--now It is too late”
Then she turned swiftly and called to Harry, who ca over to her only to meet with some trivial request, and a minute later the arriero announced dinner
I suppose that the incident had passed with her, as it had with me; little did I kno deeply I had wounded her And when I discovered my mistake, some time later and under very different circumstances, it very nearly costthe meal Le Mire was in the jolliest of moods apparently She retold the tale of Balzac's heroine who crossed the Andes in the guise of a Spanish officer, perfor the hearts of the fair ladies who took the dashi+ng captain's sex for granted fro
The story was a source of intense amusement to Harry, who insisted on the recital of detail after detail, until Desiree allowed her ination Nor was the iinal
It was still light e finished dinner, a good three hours till bedti better to do, I called to the arriero and asked hi the ht