Beauchamp's Career -- Volume 5

inds was drawn up. Beauchamp discerned a shape at that window, and the fear seized him that it might be Mada

s trem

r whisperingly if

t even a maid,

w exposing them to the square, and le

she been waiting for him? and what was the mystery? Renee in England seemed magical; yet it was nothing stranger than an old dream

e to you': she w

d he. 'You have

N

s brief; no

e straig

eviation tha

Tourde

orgotten Tourde

s. It was his first love, his enchantress, who was here: and

dead. He forced himself to think it, and could have smiled at the hurry of her coming, one, wit

pledged herself to join him with

she w

Winter night; but light subdues darkness; and in a situation

he one in chains? And you have come quite alone!-you will give me an account of every

ng her hand to be drawn to his breast a

e slight sign of reservation, and said: 'Tell me . . .' and s

er at Tourdestel

He never wr

. He is at the military camp

run ove

t expe

y n

e stopped. 'Why do you ask me why not? He is fond of us both, and sor

t. He had no clear central feeling; he tried to gather it from her touch, from his joy in beholding her and sitting with her alone, from the grac

n responding to such a call

r then, or you one y

nice had no cour

head and looked

in him, as surely as musical ears are pained by a discord that they require no touchstone t

enice and Normandy!' said Be

l uniform: Normandy was our third meeting,' said Ren

upersti

: you know them. Women are like them when they embark . . . Three chances! Who

r being free coul

y at your command. But leave you? You a

The desperate act was

lashes lifted on

s I left them in N

lied: '

m the list; no other; it should be little to them as it is little to you': or, reversing it, the substance of the word became magnified and intensified by its humble slightness: 'Things are the same, but for the jewel of the p

come to me, for the love of me, to give yourself to me, a

his: 'You see me here.

I ask for now-if the st

y friend? There is no

king of yo

,' she answe

is a wrong one?' he pursued: '

g of women,'

ot for

omen, I mean,

orget his position in f

erence by it. Not only she spoke better: she was truer, distincter, braver: and a man ever on the look-out for super

that you were u

a

hen, I

dumb one, commonly elo

ul rigour of endurance. She open

ate recognition from him in simple language and

this house, Nevi

it penetrated him with remorseful pity. It was for him, an

you,' said he: 'and you mu

drawing on her energies, and keeping down th

ith all my he

n Nor

es

Veni

rst, Renee! Tha

vain and cowardly creature, and you the boldest and faithfullest of men, that I could not abandon the habit if I would: I started confiding in you, sure th

ly, and never on such equal terms. She was his mate in love and daring at least. A sorrowful c

vision. No, would be false; and Yes, not less false; and if the step was irretrievable, to say Yes would be to plunge a dagger in her bosom; but No was a vain deceit i

nt to death over Renee's face. She looked at him tenderly.

ask me, that is all. You a burden to me? But when you ask me, y

s not stone me

xtreme perplexity. He was gagged; he could not possibly talk to her, who had cast th

hat was unimaginable. Prisoners of long date do not hope; they do not calculate: air, light, they say; to breathe freely and drop down! They are reduced to the instincts of the beasts. I thought I might give you happiness, pay part of my debt to you. Are you remembering Count Henri? That paints what I was! I could fly to that for a taste of life! a dance to death! And again you ask: Why, if I loved you then, not turn to you in preference? No, you have answered it yourself, Nevil;-on that day in the boat, when generosity in a man so surprised me, it seemed a miracle to me; and it was, in its divination. How I thank my dear brother Roland for saving me the sight of you condemned to fight, against your conscience! He taught poor M. d'Henriel his lesson. You, Nevil, were my teacher. And see how it hangs: there was mercy for me in not having drawn down my father's anger on my heart's beloved. He loved you. He pitied us. He reproached himself. In his l

he was addressing a mind, and with a peril to himself that escaped his vigilance. There was a secret intoxication for him already in the ha

cept that it gives wings. Roland inherits the chateau in Touraine.

ting violently. He lost sight of his intenti

: 'At Tourde

hich he would and would not became so intervolved that he deemed it reasonable to instance their common misery as a ground for their union against the world. And what has that world

of Renee, given him under any condition whatsoever. She was not less adorable now. In her decision, and a courage that he es

gland,' he cried abrupt

This country frowns on me; I can hardly fetch my breath here, I am suffocated. The people all walk in lines in England. Not here, Nevil! They are good people, I am sure; and it is your country: but their faces chill me, their voices grate; I should never understand them; they would be to me like their fogs eternally; and

der and his French ma

uld make a pretty

ublic life, and, quite as bad, a reflection on his party. He heard the yelping tongues of the c

pect of exile and idleness: 'there's a

if he cared so m

must have it, just as

evil; intrigu

women,

ignif

of superior know

y set a dimple faintl

they lov

ot like to see the woman he loves

de, do you care

ally no

ced of that,

sly sweetly, appear

tible to her. The nature of

with little difficulty, the torment of her situation roused the fever within her

sts to his officer -once a faint-hearted soldier! I need not remind you: fronting the enemy now, in hard truth. But I want your whole heart to decide. Give me no silly, compassion! Would it ha

ting her: and it says much for her natural generosity that the savage delicacy of a woman placed as she now was, did not take a mortal hurt

thickening over her new li

have weighed everything I surren

th Beauchamp and fl

on the latene

nduct her to her

aid Renee, simply,

rieved: or no, you are right; the step cannot, but the next to it may be stopped-that was the meaning I had! I 'll try.

e at present: he was

Don't fear me: I have no right even to press your fingers. He may throw you into my arms. Now you are the same as if you were in your own home: and you must accept me for your guide. By all I

that there is a possibili

world! You have not

I should have had an occupation in mocking him and conspiring again

as ne

urable. He rewards me for nursing him . . . he rewards me with a l

auchamp, oppress

ank her

This was to have fled from a dragon! was the lover's thought: he perceived the motive of her flight: and it was a vindication of it that appealed to him irresistibly.

enee so that she could have worshipped him. A lover that was like a starry frost, froze her veins, bewildered her intelligence. She yearned for meridian warmth, for repose in a directing hand; and let it be hard as one that grasps a

morning born in the night suns that from mountain and valley, over sea and desert, called on all earth to witness their death. The magnificence of the contempt of humanity posed before him superbly satanesque, grand as thunder among the crags and it was not a sensual cry that summoned him from h

ness in her remaining with him, gave him a new sense of pleasure that hung round her companionable conversation, deepening the meaning of the words, or sometimes contrasting the swe

auchamp gla

tled contemplation of hi

Culling i