“Which has the greater need of this interest, you bad Christian?” said Edmee with a smile.  “Is it not the hardened sinner whose eyes have never looked upon the light?”

“But, come, Edmee!  You love M. de la Marche, do you not?  For Heaven’s sake do not jest.”

“If by love,” she replied in a serious tone, “you mean a feeling of trust and friendship, I love M. de la Marche; but if you mean a feeling of compassion and solicitude, I love Bernard.  It remains to be seen which of these two affections is the deeper.  That is your concern, abbe.  For my part, it troubles me but little; for I feel that there is only one being whom I love with passion, and that is my father; and only one thing that I love with enthusiasm, and that is my duty.  Probably I shall regret the attentions and devotion of the lieutenant-general, and I shall share in the grief that I must soon cause him when I announce that I can never be his wife.  This necessity, however, will by no means drive me to desperation, because I know that M. de la Marche will quickly recover. . . .  I am not joking, abbe; M. de la Marche is a man of no depth, and somewhat cold.”

“If your love for him is no greater than this, so much the better.  It makes one trial less among your many trials.  Still, this indifference robs me of my last hope of seeing you rescued from Bernard Mauprat.”

“Do not let this grieve you.  Either Bernard will yield to friendship and loyalty and improve, or I shall escape him.”

“But how?”

“By the gate of the convent—­or of the graveyard.”

As she uttered these words in a calm tone, Edmee shook back her long black hair, which had fallen over her shoulders and partly over her pale face.

“Come,” she said, “God will help us.  It is folly and impiety to doubt him in the hour of danger.  Are we atheists, that we let ourselves be discouraged in this way?  Let us go and see Patience. . . .  He will bring forth some wise saw to ease our minds; he is the old oracle who solves all problems without understanding any.”

They moved away, while I remained in a state of consternation.

Oh, how different was this night from the last!  How vast a step I had just taken in life, no longer on the path of flowers but on the arid rocks!  Now I understood all the odious reality of the part I had been playing.  In the bottom of Edmee’s heart I had just read the fear and disgust I inspired in her.  Nothing could assuage my grief; for nothing now could arouse my anger.  She had no affection for M. de la Marche; she was trifling neither with him nor with me; she had no affection for either of us.  How could I have believed that her generous sympathy for me and her sublime devotion to her word were signs of love?  How, in the hours when this presumptuous fancy left me, could I have believed that in order to resist my passion she must needs feel love for another?  It had come to pass, then, that