He sighed. "Good-bye, monsieur," he said.
"You are hard," his father told him, speaking wistfully. "But
perhaps you are in the right so to be. In other circumstances I
should have been proud to have owned you as my son. As it is... "
He broke off abruptly, and as abruptly added, "Good-bye."
He loosed his son's hand and stepped back. They bowed formally to
each other. And then M. de La Tour d'Azyr bowed to Mlle. de
Kercadiou in utter silence, a bow that contained something of
utter renunciation, of finality.
That done he turned and walked stiffly out of the room, and so
out of all their lives. Months later they were to hear if him
in the service of the Emperor of Austria.
CHAPTER XVI
SUNRISE
Andre-Louis took the air next morning on the terrace at Meudon. The
hour was very early, and the newly risen sun was transmuting into
diamonds the dewdrops that still lingered on the lawn. Down in the
valley, five miles away, the morning mists were rising over Paris.
Yet early as it was that house on the hill was astir already, in a
bustle of preparation for the departure that was imminent.
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