Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/128

 to save Pauline's family an infinity of shame by marrying the girl; and so the preparations continue.

But in the interval that elapses between this decision and the date fixed for the nuptials, the absinthe works a terrible change in Beauvais' attitude towards Pauline, with the result that, when the day of the ceremony arrives, he denounces her before her parents and the large assembly of guests as the cast-off mistress of Guidèl, and harshly refuses to make her his wife.

The awful effect of this speech may be imagined; poor Pauline's looks confirm the truth of his statement; the guests quietly leave the broken-hearted parents with their daughter; there is no marriage. Take the decorations down; fling the wedding feast to the mendicants who whine round the house; there is no marriage!

Even Beauvais père turns on his miscreant of a son as they quit the desolate girl's abode:

"Gaston, you have behaved like a villain! I would not have believed that my son could have been capable of such a coward's vengeance!"

I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders.

"You are excited, mon père! What have I done save speak the truth, and, as the brave English say, shame the devil?"

"The truth—the truth!" said my father passionately. "Is it the truth? and if it is, could it not