“Ah Emily!” said Valancourt, “that air, those words—alas! I have, then, little to hope—when you ceased to esteem me, you ceased also to love me!”
“Most true, sir,” replied Emily, endeavouring to command her trembling voice; “and if you had valued my esteem, you would not have given me this new occasion for uneasiness.”
Valancourt’s countenance changed suddenly from the anxieties of doubt to an expression of surprise and dismay: he was silent a moment, and then said, “I had been taught to hope for a very different reception! Is it, then, true, Emily, that I have lost your regard for ever? am I to believe, that, though your esteem for me may return—your affection never can? Can the Count have meditated the cruelty, which now tortures me with a second death?”
The voice, in which he spoke this, alarmed Emily as much as his words surprised her, and, with trembling impatience, she begged that he would explain them.
“Can any explanation be necessary?” said Valancourt, “do you not know how cruelly my conduct has been misrepresented? that the actions of which you once believed me guilty (and, O Emily! how could you so degrade me in your opinion, even for a moment!) those actions—I hold in as much contempt and abhorrence as yourself? Are you, indeed, ignorant, that Count de Villefort has detected the slanders, that have robbed me of all I hold dear on earth, and has invited me hither to justify to you my former conduct? It is surely impossible you can be uninformed of these circumstances, and I am again torturing myself with a false hope!”
The silence of Emily confirmed this supposition; for the deep twilight would not allow Valancourt to distinguish the astonishment and doubting joy, that fixed her features. For a moment, she continued unable to speak; then a profound sigh seemed to give some relief to her spirits, and she said,
“Valancourt! I was, till this moment, ignorant of all the circumstances you have mentioned; the emotion I now suffer may assure you of the truth of this, and, that, though I had ceased to esteem, I had not taught myself entirely to forget you.”
“This moment,” said Valancourt, in a low voice, and leaning for support against the window—“this moment brings with it a conviction that overpowers me!—I am dear to you then—still dear to you, my Emily!”
“Is it necessary that I should tell you so?” she replied, “is it necessary, that I should say—these are the first moments of joy I have known, since your departure, and that they repay me for all those of pain I have suffered in the interval?”
Valancourt sighed deeply, and was unable to reply; but, as he pressed her hand to his lips, the tears, that fell over it, spoke a language, which could not be mistaken, and to which words were inadequate.