"
"Oh, sir! I have not come to ask you again to love me. Oh no! I am
not thinking of that. But this, this would be a lie if I kept it
now; it would choke me if I wore it as that man's wife. Take it
back;" and she tendered to him the little charm which she had always
worn round her neck since he had given it to her. He took it
abstractedly, without thinking what he did, and placed it on his
dressing-table.
"And you," she continued, "can you still keep that cross? Oh, no!
you must give me back that. It would remind you too often of vows
that were untrue."
"Marie," he said, "do not be so harsh to me."
"Harsh!" said she, "no; there has been enough of harshness. I would
not be harsh to you, Adolphe. But give me the cross; it would prove
a curse to you if you kept it."
He then opened a little box which stood upon the table, and taking
out the cross gave it to her.
"And now good-bye," she said. "We shall have but little more to say
to each other. I know this now, that I was wrong ever to have loved
you. I should have been to you as one of the other poor girls in the
house. But, oh! how was I to help it?" To this he made no answer,
and she, closing the door softly, went back to her chamber.
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