"Pray, Madame, do not
leave. Rather let me do that."
She made a gesture, hurried but final, and left him.
"It seems to me," mused the Chevalier, resuming his seat, "that I have
lost gallantry to-night, among other considerable things. I might have
opened the door for her. I wonder why she did not speak?"
CHAPTER XI
MONSIEUR LE COMTE D'HEROUVILLE TAKES THE JOURNEY TO QUEBEC
Victor ran most of the way back to the Corne d'Abondance. Gabrielle
and Paul were together, unconscious puppets in the booth of Fate, that
master of subtile ironies! How many times had their paths neared,
always to diverge again, because Fate had yet to prepare the cup of
misery? How well he had contrived to bring them together: she, her cup
running bitter with disillusion and dread of imprisonment; he, dashed
from the summit of worldly hopes, his birth impugned, stripped of
riches and pride, his lips brushed with the ashes of greatness! And on
this night, of all nights, their paths melted and became as one. It
was true that they had never met; but this night was one of dupes and
fools, and nothing was impossible. He cursed the vicomte for having
put the lust to kill into his head, when he needed clearness and
precision and delicacy to avert this final catastrophe.
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