It gives me no
justification to withdraw from that to which I am irrevocably
committed. No justification, indeed, could ever be greater than
my concern for the pain it must occasion my good friend, your
uncle, and perhaps yourself, mademoiselle."
She rose suddenly, squarely confronting him, desperate now,
driven to play the only card upon which she thought she might
count.
"Monsieur," she said, "you did me the honour to-day to speak in
certain terms; to... to allude to certain hopes with which you
honour me."
He looked at her almost in fear. In silence, not daring to speak,
he waited for her to continue.
"I... I... Will you please to understand, monsieur, that if you
persist in this matter, if... unless you can break this engagement
of yours to-morrow morning in the Bois, you are not to presume
to mention this subject to me again, or, indeed, ever again to
approach me."
To put the matter in this negative way was as far as she could
possibly go. It was for him to make the positive proposal to
which she had thus thrown wide the door.
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