If he could not grant so much, might she speak to him in the
street; come to see him sometimes, if only to be reviled; love him,
though she could not hope to be loved? She gave him this note with her
face turned away, and faltered the request that he would think ere he
replied, and hurried to the balcony without, that she might not trouble
him with the presence of her sorrow.
How the street beneath her, into which she looked, had changed since the
nights when they talked together upon this balcony! There was bright
sunshine, but it fell leeringly, not laughingly, upon the columns of the
Odean Theatre, upon the crowds on the Boulevard, upon the decrepit baths
of Julian, upon the far heights of Belleville, upon her more cheerlessly
than upon all.
She listened timorously for his word of recall. She wondered if he were
not writing a reply. Yes, that was his manner; he was cold and sharp of
speech, but he was an artist with his pen. She thought that her long
patience had moved him. Perhaps she should be all forgiven. Aye! they
should dwell together a few days longer. It was a dismal thought that it
must be for a few days, yet that would be some respite, and then they
could part friends; though her heart so clung to his that a parting
should rend it from her, she wanted to live over their brief happiness
again.
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