I had seen Madame Leon, and had
trusted her with a letter for you in which I entreated you to
grant me five minutes' Conversation."
"Alas! I never received it."
"I know that now; but then I was deceived. I went to the little
garden gate to await your coming, but it was Madame Leon who
appeared. She brought me a note written in pencil and signed with
your name, bidding me an eternal farewell. And, fool that I was,
I did not see that the note was a forgery!"
Mademoiselle Marguerite was amazed. The veil was now torn aside,
and the truth revealed to her. Now she remembered Madame Leon's
embarrassment when she met her returning from the garden on the
night following the count's death. "Ah, well! Pascal," she said,
"do you know what I was doing at almost the same moment? Alarmed
at having received no news from you, I hastened to the Rue d'Ulm,
where I learned that you had sold your furniture and started for
America. Any other woman might have believed herself deserted
under such circumstances, but not I. I felt sure that you had not
fled in ignominious fashion. I was convinced that you had only
concealed yourself for a time in order to strike your enemies more
surely."
"Do not shame me, Marguerite. It is true that of us two I showed
myself the weaker."
Lost in the rapture of the present moment, they had forgotten the
past and the future, the agony they had endured, the dangers that
still threatened them, and even the existence of their enemies.
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