"
Esperance left her, happy to escape from her torturing thoughts.
"Deceit, deceit to this good woman!" Albert was waiting to lead her
back. He admired his mother's gift, and spoke to her gently.
"It is just the tint of your skin," he said, "that gives these pearls
their beautiful lustre. They ought not to flatter themselves that it
is they who embellish you!"
All this was added anguish for the girl, his mother's kindness,
Albert's gay confidence, and this fete which was, soon to begin, this
fete where she must show herself publicly with him whom she loved so
that she would die for him, with him who loved her more than life! She
repulsed with horror the ideas that came crowding into her brain. If
the Chateau should burn. If she should fall down the staircase and
break a leg; if Albert should be taken ill and die within the hour....
If ... if ... and a million visions raced through her brain as she went
back to the Tower of Saint Genevieve. But never once did the Duke
appear as a victim of any of these misfortunes which her brain was
conjecturing up so busily.
Lunch was a bit disorganized. The Duke avoided looking at Esperance.
The sight of that child who loved him filled him with such emotion
that he was afraid of betraying himself. The Countess de Morgueil,
annoyed at seeing the two men she had sought to embroil talking
together in the most courteous fashion, started to sharpen her claws
once more.
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