"Why do you not kiss my mother?" asked Paul, astonished at her silence.
Odette looked at Elaine humbly, deprecatingly. She leaned over and touched her lips to Mme. Sirvin's cold brow. Elaine shuddered to the very depths of her soul.
The husband and wife left the room. Then a frightful change came over this suffering saint. She remained one minute immovable—Odette's touch was still burning on her forehead. Then she sprang to her feet with a wild shriek of "Paul! Paul!" Her strength, however, had all gone; wildly beating the air with her arms, with a groan of despair, she fell her full length on the floor, rigid and unconscious.
CHAPTER XIII.
Odette was in the cruelest suspense and anxiety during her stroll through the Bois de Boulogne with her husband. Fortunately, Paul was so gay and happy that he chatted merrily all the time, hardly giving her a chance to reply. After an hour or so they returned home, Paul saying he must go to his mother.
As they reached the gate, Odette said "I will leave you here."
"Are you not coming in?"
"Not just yet; I have a call to make in the neighborhood."