Very well, madame, I lose you! I have wept and I have suffered, I have
too long nourished in my heart a pitiless love that devours me. You have
been cruel!"
As she was about to leap from her saddle, I seized her in my arms and
pressed my lips to hers. She turned pale, her eyes closed, her bridle
slipped from her hand and she fell to the ground.
"God be praised!" I cried, "she loves me!" She had returned my kiss.
I leaped to the ground and hastened to her side. She was extended on the
ground. I raised her, she opened her eyes, and shuddered with terror; she
pushed my arm aside, and burst into tears.
I stood near the roadside; I looked at her as she leaned against a tree,
as beautiful as the day, her long hair falling over her shoulders, her
hands twitching and trembling, her cheeks suffused with color, brilliant
with purple and with pearls.
"Do not come near me!" she cried, "not a step!"
"Oh! my love," I said, "fear nothing; if I have offended you, you know
how to punish me. I was angry and I gave way to my grief; treat me as you
choose, you may go away now, you may send me away! I know that you love
me, Brigitte, and you are safer here than a king in his palace."
As I spoke these words, Madame Pierson fixed her humid eyes on mine; I
saw the happiness of my life come to me in the flash of those orbs. I
crossed the road and knelt before her. How little he loves, who can
recall the words he uses when he confesses that love!
CHAPTER IX
IF I were a jeweler, and had in my stock a pearl necklace that I wished
to give a friend, it seems to me I would take great pleasure in placing
it about her neck with my own hands; but if I were that friend, I would
rather die than snatch the necklace from the jeweler's hand.
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