Page:Ten Years Later.djvu/214

202 "Surely it does not press." said M. Fouquet.

"On the contrary, it is very pressing."

"Very well, we will talk of that by and by."

"By and by will not do, for my money is there." returned the marquise, pointing out the coffer to the surintendant, and showing him, as she opened it, the bundles of notes and heaps of gold. Fouquet, who had risen from his seat at the same moment as Mme. de Bellière, remained for a moment plunged in thought; then, suddenly starting back, he turned pale, and sank down in his chair, concealing his face in his hands. "Madame, madame," he murmured, "what opinion can you have of me when you make me such an offer?"

"Of you!" returned the marquise. "Tell me, rather, what you yourself think of the step I have taken."

"You bring me this money for myself, and you bring it because you know me to be embarrassed. Nay, do not deny it, for I am sure of it. Do I not know your heart?"

"If you know my heart, then, can you not see that it is my heart which I offer you."

"I have guessed rightly, then?" exclaimed Fouquet.

"In truth, madame, I have never yet given you the right to insult me in this manner."

"Insult you," she said, turning pale, "what singular delicacy of feeling! You tell me you love me; in the name of that affection you wish me to sacrifice my reputation and my honor, yet, when I offer you money, which is my own, you refuse me."

"Madame, you are at liberty to preserve what you term your reputation and your honor. Permit me to preserve mine. Leave me to my ruin, leave me to sink beneath the weight of the hatreds which surround me, beneath the faults I have committed, beneath the load even of my remorse; but, for Heaven's sake, madame, do not overwhelm me under this last infliction."

"A short time since. Monsieur Fouquet, you were wanting in judgment, now you are wanting in feeling."

Fouquet pressed his clinched hand upon his breast, heaving with emotion, saying: "Overwhelm me, madame, for I have nothing to reply."

"I offered you my friendship, Monsieur Fouquet."

"Yes, madame, and you limited yourself to that."

"And what I am now doing is the act of a friend."

"No doubt it is."

"And you reject this mark of my friendship?"