Page:The four horsemen of the Apocalypse - (Los cuatro jinetes de Apocalipsis) (IA cu31924014386738).djvu/309

 suddenly hardened by indifference, were they to drift apart like two unfriendly bodies?… What did this absurdity about loving him at the same time that she loved her former husband mean, anyway?

Marguerite hung her head, murmuring desperately:

"You are a man, I am a woman. You would never understand me, no matter what I might say. Men are not able to comprehend certain of our mysteries.… A woman would be better able to appreciate the complexity."

Desnoyers felt that he must know his fate in all its cruelty. She might speak without fear. He felt strong enough to bear the blow.… What had Laurier said when he found that he was being so tenderly cared for by Marguerite?…

"He does not know who I am.… He believes me to be a war-nurse, like the rest, who pities him seeing him alone and blind with no relatives to write to him or visit him.… At certain times, I have almost suspected that he guesses the truth. My voice, the touch of my hands made him shiver at first, as though with an unpleasant sensation. I have told him that I am a Belgian lady who has lost her loved ones and is alone in the world. He has told me his life story very sketchily, as if he desired to forget a hated past.… Never one disagreeable word about his former wife. There are nights when I think that he knows me, that he takes advantage of his blindness in order to prolong his feigned ignorance, and that distresses me. I long for him to recover his sight, for the doctors to save that doubtful eye—and yet at the same time I feel afraid. What will he say when he recognizes me?… But, no; it is better that he should see, no matter what may result. You cannot understand my anxiety, you cannot know what I am suffering."