At sight of de
Sigognac--who, alarmed at her extreme pallor, hastened anxiously to
her side--she impetuously raised her arms to heaven, as a low cry of
thanksgiving escaped her lips, and letting them fall around his neck,
for one moment hid her streaming eyes against his shoulder; but quickly
regaining her self-control, she withdrew herself gently from the
detaining arm that had fondly encircled her slender, yielding form, and
stepping back from him a little, resumed with a strong effort her usual
reserve and quiet dignity.
"And you are not wounded or hurt?" she asked, in her sweetest tones,
her face glowing with happiness as she caught his reassuring gesture;
he could not speak yet for emotion. The clasp of her arms round his neck
had been like a glimpse of heaven to him a moment of divine ecstasy.
"Ah! if he could only snatch her to his breast and hold her there
forever," he was thinking, "close to the heart that beat for her alone,"
as she continued: "If the slightest harm had befallen you, because of
me, I should have died of grief. But, oh! how imprudent you were, to
defy that handsome, wicked duke, who has the assurance and the pride of
Lucifer himself, for the sake of a poor, insignificant girl like me. You
were not reasonable, de Sigognac! Now that you are a comedian, like
the rest of us, you must learn to put up with certain impertinences and
annoyances, without attempting to resent them.
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