Part 69 (1/2)

He stood still and looked at her ”Because he sought you, Aline

Because in that alone he eant Because of that Ihi the prey of your own ambition

”I wish to speak of him no ain Before the lines of our lives crossed, I knew him for what he was, I knew the report of him that ran the countryside

Even then I found hiht to the unfortunate La Binet You heard him plead, in extenuation of his fault, hisTo that there is no answer, I suppose He conforh! But to me, he was the embodiood; he was the embodiment of sin, just as you are the eh, Aline, so high, and yet no higher than your place Could I, then, suffer that you should be dragged down by aood I loved? What could have come of it but your own damnation, as I told you that day at Gavrillac? Because of thatI resolved to save you at all costs from a fate so horrible Had you been able to tell me that you loved him it would have been different

I should have hoped that in a union sanctified by love you would have raised hihts But that out of considerations of worldly advancement you should lovelessly consent to mate with hiht hiht him relentlessly until I saw that love had come to take in your heart the place of ambition Then I desisted”

”Until you saw that love had taken the place of a in her eyes whilst he was speaking Now amazement eliminated her emotion ”But when did you see that? When?”

”I--I was mistaken I know it now Yet, at the ti ement with him in the Bois, you were moved by concern for him?”

”For hi what she said

But it did not convince him ”For me? When you knehen all the world knehat I had been doing daily for a week!”

”Ah, but he, he was different froh My uncle accounted hi could save you”

He looked at her frowning

”Why this, Aline?” he asked her with soed since then, you should noish to disown those sentiments It is a wo, Andre? Horong you are! It is the truth I have told you!”