But was this sentiment love? Again, who was this man? The Bohemian called him the emir of his tribe, but at Marseilles, he and his two companions had passed for Muscovites; how could the truth be unveiled among so many mysteries? And then, would she ever see him again? Was it not idolatry? Was the pathetic incident related by the Bohemian true?
Lost in this chaos of confused thoughts, Reine could not find one word to reply to Honorât.
What good could be accomplished by confessing this inexplicable secret? If she had felt her affection for her betrothed diminish or change, with her usual fidelity she would not have hesitated to have told him, but she felt for him the same calm, gentle tenderness, the same confidence, the same timid veneration.
If sometimes when he was leaving Maison-Forte, Honorât, encouraged by Raimond V., would press his lips upon the young girl’s brow, she would smile without giving the slightest evidence of annoyance.
Nothing in her manner betrayed a change in her attachment to Honorât, and yet she saw the day of her marriage approach with distrust and even distress.
Doubtless this want of confidence in Honorât was censurable, but she divined with true feminine instinct the danger and uselessness of telling her betrothed the strange restlessness of her heart.
Honorât appeared to be deeply grieved. Reine reproached herself for not being able to utter a word to cheer him. Once she was about to obey the inspiration of her compassion for him and tell him all in perfect confidence, but his irritated manner arrested the words on her lips.
In his vain effort to discover the cause of the coldness and capricious conduct of Reine, and suddenly struck by some vague memories, as he recalled that, for a month past, the Seigneur de Signerol had been visiting Maison-Forte more frequently than was his habit, Honorât foolishly suspected this man to be the object of Reine’s preference.
This idea was all the more absurd, as the young girl, in talking with her betrothed the day of the recorder’s adventure, had blamed the Seigneur de Signerol in almost contemptuous terms, accusing him of exciting the impetuous temper of her father. As for Seigneur de Signerol, he had never had a conversation with Mile, des Anbiez.
Honorât, however, in his state of irritation and distress, welcomed any suspicion which seemed to explain the strange attitude of Reine.