“Well, well! what is the meaning of this?”

He could not see my face, hidden as it was in Edmee’s breast.  She pushed me towards him, and the old man clasped me in his feeble arms with a burst of generous affection.

Never shall I forget the welcome they gave me.  An immense change had taken place in me during those years of the war.  I had learnt to bring my instincts and desires into harmony with my affections, my reason, and I had greatly developed my power of acquiring learning.

Edmee was not surprised at my intellectual progress, but she rejoiced at it.  I had shown it in my letters, she said.

My good uncle, the chevalier, now took a real liking for me, and where formerly natural generosity and family pride had made him adopt me, a genuine sympathy made him give me his friendship.  He did not disguise from me that his great desire, before falling into the sleep that knows no waking, was to see me married to Edmee; and when I told him this was the one wish of my soul, the one thought of my life, he said: 

“I know, I know.  Everything depends on her, and I think she can no longer have any reasons for hesitation....  At all events,” he added, “I cannot see any that she could allege at present.”

From these words I concluded that he himself had long been favourable to my suit, and that any obstacle which might exist lay with Edmee.  But so much did I stand in awe of Edmee’s sensitive pride and her unspeakable goodness that I dared not ask her point-blank to decide my fate.  M. de la Marche I knew had left France, and all thought of an engagement on his part with Edmee was at an end.  In a proud struggle to conceal the poverty of his estate, all his fortune had gone, and he had not been long in following me to America.

The chevalier insisted on my visiting my property of Roche-Mauprat.  Thanks to my uncle, great improvements had been accomplished in my absence, and the land was being well cultivated by good tenants.  I knew that I ought not to neglect my duty, and though I had not set foot on the accursed soil since the day I left it with Edmee, I set out and was away two days.

I stayed in the gloomy old house and the only remarkable thing about the visit was that I had a vision of my wicked uncle John Mauprat.

IV.—­My Trial and Happiness

We had gone on a hunting party one day after my return, and Edmee and I were separated from the rest.  Somehow the old unbridled passions rose up within me and I succeeded in affronting Edmee with my fierce speech.  Then I hastened away, ashamed and fearful.

I had not gone more than thirty paces when I heard the report of a gun from the spot where I had left Edmee.  I stopped, petrified with horror, and then retraced my steps.  Edmee was lying on the ground, rigid and bathed in blood.  Patience was standing by her side with his arms crossed on his breast, and his face livid.  For myself, I could not understand what was taking place.  I fancy that my brain, already bewildered by my previous emotions, must have been paralyzed.  I sat down on the ground by Edmee’s side.  She had been shot in the breast in two places, and the Abbe Aubert was endeavouring to staunch the blood with his handkerchief.