For
instance, every morning I found the vases in my room full of
choice flowers, though I was never able to discover what hands had
placed them there. Ah! how can one help believing in an
omnipresent passion which one inhales with the very air one
breathes! How can one resist it?
"I only discovered Arthur Gordon's object when it was too late.
He had come to Paris with the fixed determination of trapping some
rich heiress, and forcing her family to give her to him with a
large dowry, after one of those disgraceful scandals which render
a marriage inevitable. At the very same time he was pursuing two
other rich young girls, persuaded that one of the three would
certainly become his victim.
"I was the first to yield. One of those unforeseen events which
are the work of Providence, was destined to decide my fate.
Several times, already, in compliance with Arthur's urgent
entreaties, I had met him at night time in a little pavilion in
our garden. This pavilion contained a billiard-room and a
spacious gallery in which my brother practised fencing and pistol
shooting with his masters and friends. There, thanks to the
liberty I enjoyed, we thought ourselves perfectly secure from
observation, and we were imprudent enough to light the candles.
One night when I had just joined Arthur in the pavilion, I thought
I heard the sound of hoarse, heavy breathing behind me.
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