Page:Ten Years Later.djvu/215

Rh "I do reject it."

"Monsieur Fouquet, look at me," said the marquise, with glistening eyes, "I now offer you my love."

"Oh, madame!" exclaimed Fouquet.

"I have loved you for a long while past; women, like men, have a false delicacy at times. For a long time past I have loved you, but would not confess it. Well, then, you have implored this love on your knees, and I have refused you; I was blind, as you were a little while since; but as it was my love that you sought, it is my love that I now offer you."

"Oh, madame! you overwhelm me beneath the weight of my happiness."

"Will you be happy, then, if I am yours — yours entirely?"

"It will be the supremest happiness for me,"

"Take me, then. If, however, for your sake I sacrifice a prejudice, do you, for mine, sacrifice a scruple."

"Do not tempt me."

"Do not refuse me."

"Think seriously of what you are proposing."

"Fouquet, but one word. Let it be no, and I open this door," and she pointed to the door which led into the street, "and you will never see me again. Let that word be yes, and I am yours entirely."

"Elise! Elise! But this coffer?"

"It contains my dowry."

"It is your ruin," exclaimed Fouquet, turning over the gold and papers; "there must be a million here."

"Yes, my jewels, for which I care no longer if you do not love me, and for which, equally, I care no longer if you love me as I love you."

"This is too much," exclaimed Fouquet. "I yield, I yield, even were it only to consecrate so much devotion. I accept the dowry."

"And take the woman with it," said the marquise, throwing herself into his arms.

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{{c|{{larger|CHAPTER XXIX.}}}} {{c|LE TERRAIN DE DIEU.}}

{[sc|During}} the progress of these events Buckingham and De Wardes traveled in excellent companionship, and made the journey from Paris to Calais in undisturbed harmony