Page:A Virgin Heart.pdf/179



ROM 8.57 a. m. till the hour of 6 p. m., when she rang at his door, M. Hervart had precisely one idea, a single one: he must meet Gratienne.

She had been in Paris since the day before and she had just written to him, when she got his telegram from Caen. Her delight was very great. She fulfilled her lover's desire with joy.

"I love you, my old darling!"

M. Hervart spent two days without thinking of Rose except as something very remote. He was thrilled to re-discover the Louvre: he looked at the colonnade before he went in; even the 'fighting Hero' seemed a novelty to him: he went and meditated in front of the crouching Venus, of which he was especially fond. It was there that he had often met Gratienne. How he loved her! What a pleasure it had been to come back to his 'ephebe.'