You said you should
leave France, never to return--God forgive you if it was not true!--and
when you treated me worst, I was tempted to hear kind words from
another. Fanchette's friend has a rich cousin who admires me. He is to
live in Paris many years. I never loved him, but I am poor, and many
women marry only for a home. He offered that and more to me. I would not
hear it. Oh! if you had only said one tender word to me in those days of
temptation. I begged you for it. When I was humblest at your feet you
put your heel upon me most.
"One night when I had the greatest trouble of all he sat beside me and
plied his suit, and was pleasanter, my boy, than you have ever been; and
then, rising, he placed that box of jewelry in my lap and ran away. I
left it upon Fanchette's mantel that night. She filled my head with
false thoughts next day. I never meant while you were in Paris to do you
any wrong; but I put those jewels in my pocket, meaning to give them up
again; you found them, and I was made wretched."
Ralph made that dry, biting cough which he used to express unbelief. She
only bent her head and wept silently.
"When all was gone, poor me! I have found much sorrow in my little life,
but we are light-hearted in France, and we live and laugh again.
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