You must retract those terrible
words; I deserve them, but they will kill me. O God! can it be true that
I count for nothing in your life, or that I am an influence in your life
only because of the evil I have done you!"
"I do not know," she said, "who is busying himself in our affairs;
certain insinuations, mixed with idle gossip, have been set afloat in the
village and in the neighboring country. Some say that I have been ruined;
others accuse me of imprudence and folly; others represent you as a cruel
and dangerous man. Some one has spied into our most secret thoughts;
things that I thought no one else knew, events in your life and sad
scenes to which they have led, are known to others; my poor aunt spoke to
me about it some time since, and she knew it some time before speaking to
me. Who knows but what that has hastened her death? When I meet my old
friends in the street, they either treat me coldly, or turn aside, even
my dear peasant girls, those good girls who love me so much, shrug their
shoulders when they see my place empty at the Sunday afternoon balls. How
has that come about? I do not know, nor do you, I suppose; but I must go
away, I can not endure it. And my aunt's death, so sudden, so unexpected,
above all this solitude! this empty room! Courage fails me; my friend, my
friend, do not abandon me!"
She wept; in an adjoining room, I saw her household goods in disorder, a
trunk on the floor, everything indicating preparations for departure.
Pages:
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208