"'"You see,Honorine,"said I,my eyes full of tears,"the ice is broken,and I am so tremulous with happiness that you must forgive the incoherency of my language.It will be so for a long time yet.""'"There is no crime in being in love with your wife,"said she with a forced smile.
"'"Do me the favor,"said I,"no longer to work as you do.I have heard from Madame Gobain that for three weeks you have been living on your savings;you have sixty thousand francs a year of your own,and if you cannot give me back your heart,at least do not abandon your fortune to me.""'"I have long known your kindness,"said she.
"'"Though you should prefer to remain here,"said I,"and to preserve your independence;though the most ardent love should find no favor in your eyes,still,do not toil.""'I gave her three certificates for twelve thousand francs a year each;she took them,opened them languidly,and after reading them through she gave me only a look as my reward.She fully understood that I was not offering her money,but freedom.
"'"I am conquered,"said she,holding out her hand,which I kissed.
"Come and see me as often as you like."
"'So she had done herself a violence in receiving me.Next day Ifound her armed with affected high spirits,and it took two months of habit before I saw her in her true character.But then it was like a delicious May,a springtime of love that gave me ineffable bliss;she was no longer afraid;she was studying me.Alas!when I proposed that she should go to England to return ostensibly to me,to our home,that she should resume her rank and live in our new residence,she was seized with alarm.
"'"Why not live always as we are?"she said.
"'I submitted without saying a word.
"'"Is she making an experiment?"I asked myself as I left her.On my way from my own house to the Rue Saint-Maur thoughts of love had swelled in my heart,and I had said to myself,like a young man,"This evening she will yield.""'All my real or affected force was blown to the winds by a smile,by a command from those proud,calm eyes,untouched by passion.Iremembered the terrible words you once quoted to me,"Lucretia's dagger wrote in letters of blood the watchword of woman's charter--Liberty!"and they froze me.I felt imperatively how necessary to me was Honorine's consent,and how impossible it was to wring it from her.Could she guess the storms that distracted me when I left as when I came?