Page:Stories by Foreign Authors (French III).djvu/160

150 "'Ah!' said he, 'I did not know that. That will certainly be better. Besides, those farewells!—those farewells!—they weaken one.'

"'Yes, yes,' said I, 'don't make a child of yourself, that's much the best way. Don't kiss her, if you can help it; if you do, you are lost.'

"I gave him another good grasp of the hand, and left him. Oh! all this was very hard for me!

"He seemed to me to keep the secret well; for they walked arm in arm for a quarter of an hour, and then returned to the edge of the water to take the rope and the dress which one of the cabin boys had fished up.

"Night came on suddenly. It was the moment I had resolved to seize. But that moment has lasted me till the present time, and I shall drag it along all my life, like a cannon-ball." Here the old commandant was obliged to stop, and I took care not to speak, for fear of turning his ideas out of their channel. He began again, striking his breast:

"That moment, I assure you, I can't understand it yet. I felt the deepest rage seize upon my whole heart, and at the same time something or other, I don't know what, was forcing me to obey, and pushing me forward. I summoned the officers and said to them:

"'Come! a boat in the water, since we are