Page:A Virgin Heart.pdf/148

144 the words he whispered had little by little filled her imagination with images which she wanted to see in real life. How often she had thought of running away! Two days in Paris! And now her husband had given her these two days himself.

When she said, "I'm glad" she was confessing to the existence of a happiness in which it still seemed imposible wholly to believe. She pressed herself close to Leonor.

"Is it true? Are we really both of us here, alone and free?"

In a whisper she added, her bosom heaving with precipitate waves, "1 shall be yours, absolutely yours, at last."

"All mine, all?" asked Leonor touching her mouth with his own.

"I belong to you."

She had the wisdom to withdraw, and looking out of the window she asked:

"Where are we?"

"We are coming near our happiness," said Leonor.

They crossed the Oise, calm and gentle; then came the ﬁrst houses of Compiègne and in a