"I could have courage for all, except renouncing you; but the simple thought of that makes me feebler than a child,--more despairing than a soul in hell."
"Michel, my friend, will you do as I ask of you?" stammered Mary, her voice half drowned in tears.
"I--I--"
He was about to answer that he would, but he stopped.
"Ah," he cried, "if you suffered as I suffer!"
At that cry of utter selfishness and yet of infinite love, Mary, beside herself, panting for breath, half maddened, clasped him in her nervous arms and said in a sobbing voice:--
"Would it comfort you to know that my heart is torn with an anguish like yours?"
"Yes, yes; oh, yes!"
"Would hell be a paradise if I were by your side?"
"An eternity of suffering with you, Mary, and I could bear all."