As, while leading her back to the pavilion, he led her in the direction of the basin, the combat between remorse and love in her heart became so violent that she uttered a cry of horror, and, clinging to him with all her strength, she said:
"I pledged my word of honor to leave you, and I am breaking my pledge and reducing your mother to want! Can you relieve me from that burden?"
"You are mad!" said Julien; "was my mother so very poor when you first knew her? will my right arm be cut off to keep me from working? Very well, then I will work with my left arm! Ah! I understand everything now. This is the revenge threatened by Monsieur Antoine; I ought to have guessed sooner why our father's house was given back to us. Poor Julie! you were sacrificing yourself for us; but that is all null and void; I have not consented; I have accepted nothing. I submitted, knowing nothing about it. Come, do not tremble any more, I release you from your promise, and woe to the man who dares to remind you of it! If you hesitate, if you shrink from anything, I shall believe that wealth is what you regret, and that you have less courage and love than I!"
"Ah! that is the suspicion I dreaded so!" said Julie. "Let us go, let us go!—but where shall we go? How shall I dare appear before your mother and say: 'I bring you sorrow and ruin?'"
"Julie, you doubt my mother, you no longer love us!"
"Let us go!" she repeated, "let us go to her, and let her decide my fate. Take me, take me away from here!"
Julie was completely crushed by such a multitude of emotions; her strength failed her, and Julien, as he caught her in his arms, saw that she had fainted. It was impossible to do anything for her in the pavilion, so he carried her to her apartment, the garden door being open, and the room lighted. He deposited Julie on a sofa, and she speedily recovered consciousness; but when she attempted to rise, she fell back.
"Ah! my dear," she said, "I cannot stand. Am I going to die here? Is it too late for you to save me? Hark: someone is knocking on the street door, I think."
"No," said Julien, who had heard nothing.
But, as he strove to restore her confidence while his own was beginning to disappear, they were startled by a loud peal of the bell.