Ah! just God! How weary I
am! When will all this cease?"
"Whenever you please," said she coldly, "I am as tired of it as you."
"At this very moment; I leave you forever, and may time justify you!
Time! Time! O what a cold lover! remember this adieu. Time! and thy
beauty, and thy love, and thy happiness, where will they be? Is it thus,
without regret, you allow me to go? Ah! the day when the jealous lover
will know that he has been unjust, the day when he shall see proofs, he
will understand what a heart he has wounded, is it not so? He will bewail
his shame, he will know neither joy nor sleep; he will live only in the
memory of the time when he might have been happy. But, on that day, his
proud mistress will turn pale as she sees herself avenged; she will say
to herself: 'If I had only done it sooner!' And believe me, if she loves
him, pride will not console her."
I tried to be calm but I was no longer master of myself, and I began to
pace the floor as she had done. There are certain glances that resemble
the clashing of drawn swords; such glances, Brigitte and I exchanged at
that moment. I looked at her as the prisoner looks at the door of his
dungeon. In order to break the seal on her lips and force her to speak, I
would give my life and hers.
"What do you mean?" she asked. "What do you wish me to tell you?"
"What you have in your heart. Are you cruel enough to make me repeat it?"
"And you, you," she cried, "are you not a hundred times more cruel? Ah!
fool, as you say, who would know the truth! Fool that I would be if I
expected you to believe it! You would know my secret, and my secret is
that I love you.
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