“Then await the end of the year, and if your father returns let him settle it.”
“But Lendert, my whole heart goes out to him, and if he loves me he offends his mother, and if I love him I may offend my father, yet each of us loves only the other.”
Jeanne sighed. “Earthly love is very strong; one cannot always conquer that at once; yet, my dear, if you ought not to marry Lendert you must not.”
“You think I ought not to marry him even if his mother should at last consent?”
“If you gave your promise first to Pierre, and if your father orders it, you should marry Pierre.”
Alaine’s head drooped lower and lower. Ahead rode Lendert; she could see his stalwart figure outlined against the dimly soft sky. She felt that she could leap from her horse, fly to him, beg him to take her away, away from all her confusing and conflicting problems.
The piteous sigh she gave aroused Jeanne’s compassion. “I am telling you what is right, my child, as you asked me to do, but remember, when the year is at an end you will be free to do what your heart dictates. I think there is no doubt of that.”
“Then you think I shall not see my father again?”
“Or Pierre? I think it is very doubtful.”
“It is terrible, terrible, that I should build any happiness on that. I will not. I will think they are both to return, and will be patient. Will you tell Lendert what you have told me it is right to do? Will you let him know that I must abide by the right at any cost? I am so weak-hearted that I should yield up my love again to him if he asked it. When I think of it, Jeanne, I know that love is mightier than death, for I wish we could die together, he and I, this minute. Is it not pitiful that love is so strong and will is so weak? I want to do right. I mean to do right, while every fibre of my being throbs for Lendert. If I am to be the wife of another I must not let him even look at me, with the lovelight in his eyes, for mine will surely answer. Twice in my life for a few moments I have been so happy that I can believe what heaven is like. It is not given to all of us to be so happy, even for a few moments, in this world, therefore I must be satisfied with that and believe that I am more favored than many women.” Her voice shook, and Jeanne knew without seeing it that her tears were falling fast.