"To me it does. Fifty times I have thought I caught sight of her, but she disappeared before I could make my way through some crowd to the spot where she was standing. This will not last forever,—ere long we shall meet face to face."
"I hope so! I heartily hope so! I would give all I possess, though that is little enough, to have it so!"
These words were spoken with such generous warmth, that Maurice was moved. He had not before noticed the change in his Breton neighbor,—a change the precise opposite to the one which had taken place in himself, yet quite as remarkable.
Gaston's address was no longer nervous and flurried; he had gained considerable self-command and repose of manner. The air of uncomfortable diffidence, which formerly characterized his deportment, had disappeared, and given place to a manly and cheerful bearing.
"If he loves Madeleine," thought Maurice, "how can he look so calm while she is—God only knows where, and exposed to what dangers?"
"Have you heard from Mademoiselle Ber—er—ertha?" asked M. de Bois, with some hesitation.
"Yes, several times. My cousin Bertha was broken-hearted at the news I sent her from London; but I trust that soon"—
He did not conclude his sentence: his wan face lighted up; his restless, straining eyes were fastened upon some form that passed in a carriage. Without even bidding M. de Bois good morning, he broke away and pursued the carriage; for some time he kept up with it, then Gaston saw him motion vehemently to a sleepy coachman, who was lazily driving an empty fiacre. The next moment Maurice had opened the door himself and leaped into the vehicle; it followed the carriage the young viscount had kept in view, and soon both were out of sight.
The imagination of Maurice had become so highly inflamed that forms and faces constantly took the outline and lineaments of those ever-present to his mind. And when, after some exhausting pursuits, he approached near enough for the illusive likeness to fade away, or when the shape he was impetuously making towards was lost to sight before it could be neared, he always felt as though he had been upon the eve of that discovery upon which all his energies were concentrated.