Look!" The locket lay in her hand. The face
there was his own.
"And you come to me?" It was so difficult to believe. "Ah, but you
heard what the vicomte said that day?" a shade of gloom mingling with
the gladness on his face.
"I saw only you in the doorway, defending my honor with your life. I
tried to tell you then that I loved you, but I could not."
"I am not worthy," he said, rising from his knees.
"I love you!"
"I have been a gamester."
"I love you!" The music in her voice deepened and vibrated. The
strings of the harp of life gave forth their fullest sound.
"I have been a roisterer by night. I have looked into the bottom of
many an unwise cup."
"Do you not hear me say that I love you? There is no past now, Paul;
there is nothing but the future. Once, I promised in a letter that if
you found me you might take what I had always denied you, my lips."
He put his arms around her and took from her glowing lips that fairest
and most perfect flower which grows in the garden of love: the first
kiss.
And there was no shadow between.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE ABSOLUTION OF MONSIEUR LE MARQUIS DE PERIGNY
The Chateau Saint Louis shimmered in the November moonlight.
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