"Spare me, spare me your reproaches," said I: "I am sufficiently humbled already."
"Not humbled—those only are humbled who could injure such a creature. Helen, I was in the passage at the prison, and I saw all that passed.
"Now then, while this recollection is fresh on your mind, let me ask you if you think yourself justified in staying here where you are now exposed to insult and to danger, for the sake of one who at a moment which would have bound another man more tenderly than ever, could so meet and so offend your eyes?" I was still silent.
"Now then hear my proposal. I have the greatest reason to believe that I can secure an escape both for you, Alice, and myself, through the barriere this very night on the road to Switzerland, There, my dear friend, I offer you a home and a parent! My mother will be your mother, my uncle your uncle; and well do I know, that could my revered Mrs. Pendarves look down on what is passing here, she would be happier to see you under the protection of my family than under any other protection on earth!"
"No, my dear friend, no; your just resentment and your wishes deceive you. My mother valued her child's fame and her child's virtues equal with her safety."
"Your fame could not suffer. I would not live even near you, Helen. I am as jealous of your fame as any mother could be: besides that principle would make me shun you.—No, Helen; I would see you safe in Switzerland, and then sail for America."
"Generous man! But you shall not quit your country for my sake: besides, I will not quit my husband in the hour of danger. No, whatever be the fate of Pendarves, I stay to witness and perhaps to share it. The die is cast: so say no more."
By this time we had reached my home. Alice came to meet me.
"O my poor, dear master!" said she: "but it was all his own seeking. We had passed the barrier; but he would go back. He declared he could not, would not escape till he knew you were safe: when just as I was got into the house in the Champs Elisées, and he was holding the reins in his hands, the officers seized him; and he said, 'I am he whom you seek—I am quite willing to accompany you.'"
"This in some measure redeems his character with me," cried De Walden; and I did not feel it the less because I said nothing: but at length I said, "Generous Seymour! He never told me this. He did not make a merit of it with me."