Perhaps
you have made me more like one of your countrywomen. I do not
know--only that I can never be happy any more.
"Since we have dwelt apart my tempter has been to see me every day. He
has grand chambers which he will give me, and rich wardrobes, and a
watch, and a voiture. It is a dazzling picture for one who toils, going
all her days on foot, and lovely only to be deceived. But I hate that
man now, because he has come between you and me, and I have slept upon
my tears alone."
She melted again into a long, loud wail, and he proposed nervously that
they should walk into the gardens near by. He said little, and that
contemptuously, tossing his cane at the birds, much interested in a
statue, delighted with the visitors beneath the maroon trees; and she
followed him here and there, very weak, for she had eaten no breakfast,
and not so deceived but she knew that he labored to wound her. He asked
her into a cafe, cavalierly, and was very careful to make display of his
napoleons as he paid. He did not invite her, but she followed him to his
hotel again, and here, as if with terrible _ennui_, he threw himself
upon his bed and feigned to sleep, while she crouched at his table and
wrote him a contrite letter. It was sweetly and simply worded, and asked
that he should let her return to him for his few remaining days in
Paris.
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