"Oh, sir!" said Adrienne, in an agitated voice, "I come to terminate the phrase which you have commenced.I told you, that when a suspicion crossed my mind, I uttered it aloud to the person by whom it was inspired.Well! I confess it: I have failed in this honesty.I came here as a spy upon you, when your answer to the Abbe d'Aigrigny was giving me a new pledge of your devotion and sincerity.I doubted your uprightness at the moment when you were bearing testimony to my frankness.For the first time in my life, I stooped to deceit; this weakness merits punishment, and I submit to it--demands reparation, and I make it--calls for apologies, and I tender them to you." Then turning towards Djalma, she added: "Now, prince, I am no longer mistress of my secret.I am your relation, Mdlle.de Cardoville; and I hope you will accept from a sister the hospitality that you did not refuse from a mother."
Djalma made no reply.Plunged in ecstatic contemplation of this sudden apparition, which surpassed his wildest and most dazzling visions, he felt a sort of intoxication, which, paralyzing the power of thought, concentrated all his faculties in the one sense of sight; and just as we sometimes seek in vain to satisfy unquenchable thirst, the burning look of the Indian sought, as it were, with devouring avidity, to take in all the rare perfections of the young lady.Verily, never had two more divine types of beauty met face to face.Adrienne and Djalma were the very ideal of a handsome youth and maiden.There seemed to be something providential in the meeting of these two natures, so young and so vivacious, so generous and so full of passion, so heroic and so proud, who, before coming into contact, had, singularly enough, each learned the moral worth of the other; for if, at the words of Rodin, Djalma had felt arise in his heart an admiration, as lively as it was sudden, for the valiant and generous qualities of that unknown benefactress, whom he now discovered in Mdlle.de Cardoville, the latter had, in her turn, been moved, affected, almost terrified, by the interview she had just overheard, in which Djalma had displayed the nobleness of his soul, the delicate goodness of his heart, and the terrible transports of his temper.Then she had not been able to repress a movement of astonishment, almost admiration, at sight of the surprising beauty of the prince; and soon after, a strange, painful sentiment, a sort of electric shock, seemed to penetrate all her being, as her eyes encountered Djalma's.
Cruelly agitated, and suffering deeply from this agitation, she tried to dissemble the impression she had received, by addressing Rodin, to apologize for having suspected him.But the obstinate silence of the Indian redoubled the lady's painful embarrassment.Again raising her eyes towards the prince, to invite him to respond to her fraternal offer, she met his ardent gaze wildly fixed upon her, and she looked once more with a mixture of fear, sadness, and wounded pride; then she congratulated herself on having foreseen the inexorable necessity of keeping Djalma at a distance from her, such apprehension did this ardent and impetuous nature already inspire.Wishing to put an end to her present painful situation, she said to Rodin, in a low and trembling voice, "Pray, sir, speak to the prince; repeat to him my offers.I cannot remain longer." So saying, Adrienne turned, as if to rejoin Florine.But, at the first step, Djalma sprang towards her with the bound of a tiger, about to be deprived of his prey.Terrified by the expression of wild excitement which inflamed the Indian's countenance, the young lady drew back with a loud scream.
At this, Djalma remembered himself, and all that had passed.Pale with regret and shame, trembling, dismayed, his eyes streaming with tears, and all his features marked with an expression of the most touching despair, he fell at Adrienne's feet, and lifting his clasped hands towards her, said in a soft, supplicating, timid voice: "Oh, remain! remain! do not leave me.I have waited for you so long!" To this prayer, uttered with the timid simplicity of a child, and a resignation which contrasted strangely with the savage violence that had so frightened Adrienne, she replied, as she made a sign to Florine to prepare for their departure:
"Prince, it is impossible for me to remain longer here."
"But you will return?" said Djalma, striving to restrain his tears."I shall see you again?"
"Oh, no! never--never!" said Mdlle.de Cardoville, in a failing voice.
Then, profiting by the stupor into which her answer had thrown Djalma, Adrienne disappeared rapidly behind the plants in the greenhouse.
Florine was hastening to rejoin her mistress, when, just at the moment she passed before Rodin, he said to her in a low, quick voice: "To-morrow we must finish with the hunchback." Florine trembled in every limb, and, without answering Rodin, disappeared, like her mistress, behind the plants.Broken, overpowered, Djalma remained upon his knees, with his head resting on his breast.His countenance expressed neither rage nor excitement, but a painful stupor; he wept silently.Seeing Rodin approach him, he rose, but with so tremulous a step, that he could hardly reach the divan, on which he sank down, hiding his face in his hands.
Then Rodin, advancing, said to him in a mild and insinuating tone: "Alas!
I feared what has happened.I did not wish you to see your benefactress;
and if I told you she was old, do you know why, dear prince?"
Djalma, without answering, let his hands fall upon his knees, and turned towards Rodin a countenance still bathed in tears.
"I knew that Mdlle.de Cardoville was charming, and at your age it is so easy to fall in love," continued Rodin; "I wished to spare you that misfortune, my dear prince, for your beautiful protectress passionately loves a handsome young man of this town."
Upon these words, Djalma suddenly pressed both hands to his heart, as if he felt a piercing stab, uttered a cry of savage grief, threw back his head, and fell fainting upon the divan.
Rodin looked at him coldly for some seconds, and then said as he went away, brushing his old hat with his elbow, "Come! it works--it works!"