"Then you will return! You will return soon?"
Maurice must have been the dullest of lovers if he could not distinguish the intonation of joy in Madeleine's voice.
"If my own advancement is the only incentive to my return, circumstances may interfere; my father's health, for instance, the necessity of attending to his affairs, or other considerations."
Madeleine did not reply.
"Madeleine, I shall offend you, perhaps, for I am about to transgress. At all hazards, I must touch upon a subject which you have banished from our conversation."
For a moment Madeleine looked disturbed, but this warning enabled her to collect herself; she soon said, with composure,—
"Even if you do not spare me, Maurice, do not touch on any theme which must give pain to yourself."
"I have not yet quite decided," returned he, "how much pain it may cost me. I will only ask you to answer me a few questions. As I am a lawyer, cross-examination, you know, is my vocation, and you must indulge me. Nearly five years ago you declared that you had bestowed your heart irrevocably. You were very young then,—you had had few opportunities of seeing gentlemen; yet you have remained constant to this mysterious lover? You have never repented that you loved him?"
"Never!" answered Madeleine, with fervor.
"And you believe that he loves you?"