Page:The Writings of Prosper Merimee-Volume 3.djvu/188

166 166 THE ETRUSCAN VASE

among other things, that I was the best woman in Paris; therefore he wished to be my lover. I showed the letter to my cousin Julie. We were then both very silly, and we resolved to play him a trick. One evening we had several visitors, among them being Massigny. My cousin said to me, ' I am going to read you a declaration of love which I received this morning.' She took the letter and read it amidst peals of laughter. . . . Poor Massigny! . . ."

Saint-Clair fell on his knees uttering a cry of joy. He seized the Countess's hand and covered it with tears and kisses. Mathilde was surprised beyond measure, and thought at first he had gone mad. Saint-Clair could only mur- mur, "Forgive me! forgive me!" When he rose to his feet he was radiant; he was happier than on the day when Mathilde had said to him for the first time, " I love you."

" I am the guiltiest and most stupid of men," he cried; " for two days I have misjudged you ,. . . and never given you a chance to clear yourself. . . ."

" You suspected me? . . . And of what? "

" Oh! idiot that I was! . . . they told me you had loved Massigny, and "

" Massigny! " and she began to laugh; then