. . I have brought you another!" Redder than ever her face
flamed. The handkerchief was resolving itself into shreds.
"Another letter?" vaguely.
"No, no! Another . . . another answer!"
How still everything had suddenly grown to him! "Another answer? You
have brought me another answer?" Then the wine of life rushed through
his veins, and all darkness was gone. "Diane, Diane!" he cried,
springing toward her.
"Yes, yes; always call me that! Never call me Gabrielle!"
"And Victor?"
Her hands were against his breast and she was pushing him back. "Oh,
it is true that I loved him, as a woman would love a brave and gallant
brother." A strand of hair fell athwart her eyes and she brushed it
aside.
"But I?--I, whom you have made dance so sorrily?--but I?"
"To-night I saw you . . . I could see you," incoherently, "alone,
bereft of the friend you loved and who loved you. . . . I thought of
you as you faced them all that day! . . . How calm and brave you were!
. . . You said that some day you would force me to love you. You said
I was dishonest. I was, I was! But you could never force me to love
you, because .
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