Page:The Reverberator (2nd edition, American issue, London and New York, Macmillan & Co., 1888).djvu/236

226 it before the young lady is better explained by the fact that her lover slipped a five-franc piece into his hand. At any rate she entered the dining-room sooner than Gaston had ventured to hope, though she corrected this promptitude a little by stopping short, drawing back, when she saw how pale he was and how he looked as if he had been crying.

"I have chosen—I have chosen," he said gently, smiling at her in contradiction to these indications.

"You have chosen?"

"I have had to give them up. But I like it so much better than having to give you up! I took you first with their assent. That was well enough—it was worth trying for. But now I take you without it. We can live that way too."

"Ah, I'm not worth it. You give up too much!" cried the girl. "We're going away—it's all over." She turned from him quickly, as if to carry out her meaning, but he caught her more quickly still and held her—held her fast and long. She had only freed herself when her father and sister broke in, from the salon, attracted apparently by the audible commotion.

"Oh, I thought you had at least knocked over the lamp!" Delia exclaimed.

"You must take me with you if you are going away, Mr. Dosson," Gaston said. "I will start whenever you like."