Be not rash or retaliatory! become not the
companion of this Frenchman who has divided us. We will commence again.
I have tested your fidelity. You shall have all the liberty that you
need, everything that I have; say to me, sweetheart, that you will
stay!"
For a moment her bright eyes were scintillant with wrath and
indignation. He who had racked her all day for his pleasure was bound
and prostrate now. Should she not do as much for her revenge?
"I have no other friend now," he pleaded; "my nights have been
sleepless, solitary. In the days I have drunk deeply, squandered my
money, tried all dissipations, and proved them disappointments. If you
leave me I swear that I will plague myself and you."
"Oh! Ralph," said Suzette, "I do not wonder at the artfulness of women
after this day's lesson. Something impels me to return your cruelty; it
is a bad impulse, and I shall disobey it. I thank God, my baby, that I
cannot do as you have done to me."
She wept again for the last time, but he kissed her tears away, and
wondered where the great shame lay, upon that child or upon him?
PART VI.
DESERTION.
When the last fresh passion was over, Suzette, whose face had grown
purer and sadder, roused Ralph Flare to his more legitimate ambition.
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