Page:The Mystery of Madeline Le Blanc (1900).djvu/105

Rh diately to busy himself with the prefecture of police.

On the second day after, they started home, arriving at their native town at night-fall. Monsieur wandered alone to the cottage beside the garden, where there awaited one to hear what he had to tell; and Joseph walked home with Irène. He had bought the rosary of the laborer, and as he was about to turn away to his own abode, he gave it to her, saying: "You keep it. It can remind me of nothing save what I must forget in order to live."

"I feel sorry for you, Joseph," whispered Irène, "I did what I could."

"Yes," replied the young soldier, and out of the sorrow and gratitude of his heart, he bowed and kissed her hand.

Two years after, Joseph and Irène were married.

In 1870, forty years later, when nearly all the persons who figured in this brief