Part 56 (2/2)
”Consider, then, that you killed his friend”
”I find in that nothing hich to reproach myself My justification lay in the circumstances--the subsequent events in this distracted country surely confirm it”
”And” She faltered a little, and looked away from him for the first time ”And that you that you And what of Mademoiselle Binet, whom he was to have married?”
He stared at her for a moment in sheer surprise ”Was to have married?”
he repeated incredulously, dismayed almost
”You did not know that?”
”But how do you?”
”Did I not tell you that we are as brother and sister almost? I have his confidence He told me, before before you lance thoughtful, disturbed, ally, ”a singular fatality at work between thatus ever each by turns athwart the other's path”
He sighed; then swung to face her again, speaking more briskly: ”Madee--no suspicion of this thing But” He broke off, considered, and then shrugged ”If I wronged him, I did so unconsciously It would be unjust to blame me, surely In all our actions it must be the intention alone that counts”
”But does it make no difference?”
”None that I can discern, ives me no justification to withdraw from that to which I am irrevocably coreater than ood friend, your uncle, and perhaps yourself,him, desperate now, driven to play the only card upon which she thought she ht count
”Monsieur,” she said, ”you did me the honour to-day to speak in certain terms; to to allude to certain hopes hich you honour me”
He looked at her al to speak, he waited for her to continue
”I I Will you please to understand, monsieur, that if you persist in this e in the Bois, you are not to presuain to approach ative as as far as she could possibly go It was for him to make the positive proposal to which she had thus throide the door
”Mademoiselle, you cannot mean”
”I do, monsieur irrevocably, please to understand” He looked at her with eyes of misery, his handsome, manly face as pale as she had ever seen it The hand he had been holding out in protest began to shake He lowered it to his side again, lest she should perceive its treht within hiement between his desires and what he conceived to be the de how far his honour was buttressed by implacable vindictiveness Retreat, he conceived, was iony unthinkable She asked too , else she would never be so unreasonable, so unjust But also he saw that it would be futile to atteh he kill Andre-Louis Moreau in theas he fiercely hoped he would, yet the victory even in death rave and sorrowful of face as he was grave and sorrowful of heart
”Madeo
”But you have not answered me!” she called after him in terror
He checked on the threshold, and turned; and there froraceful silhouette against the brilliant sunshi+ne beyond--asinister andin the dread hours that were to follow
”What would you, mademoiselle? I but spared one leaving her crushed and raging She sank down again into the great red chair, and sat there crumpled, her elbows on the table, her face in her hands--a face that was on fire with shame and passion She had offered herself, and she had been refused! The inconceivable had befallen her The hu that could never be effaced
Startled, appalled, she stepped back, her hand pressed to her tortured breast