In about an hour Leoni appeared and held out his arms to embrace me.
"Wait a moment," I said, drawing back, "if you have deceived me hitherto, do not add another crime to those you have already committed against me. Here, look at this letter; did you write it? If somebody has imitated your handwriting, tell me quickly, for I hope that it is so, and I am suffocating."
Leoni glanced at the letter and turned as pale as death.
"Mon Dieu!" I cried, "I hoped that I had been deceived! I came to you, almost certain of finding that you knew nothing of this infamy. I said to myself: 'He has done much that is bad, he has deceived me before; but, in spite of everything, he loves me. If it is true that I am an annoyance to him and that I stand in his way, he would have told me so when I felt the courage to leave him, barely a month ago; whereas he threw himself at my feet and implored me to remain. If he is ambitious and a schemer, he would not have kept me, for I have no fortune, and my love is of no advantage to him in any way. Why should he complain of my importunity now? He has but a word to say to send me away. He knows that I am proud; he need not fear my prayers or my reproaches. Why should he wish to degrade me?'"
I could not continue; a flood of tears choked my voice and arrested my words.
"Why should I wish to degrade you?" cried Leoni beside himself with emotion; "to spare my tattered conscience another cause for remorse! You cannot understand that, Juliette. It is easy to see that you have never committed a crime!"
He paused; I sank into a chair and we faced each other, equally overcome.
"Poor angel!" he cried at last, "did you deserve to be the companion and victim of such a knave as I am? What did you do to God before you were born, unfortunate child, that he should throw you into the arms of a villain who is killing you with shame and despair? Poor Juliette! poor Juliette!"
And in his turn he shed a torrent of tears.
"Very well," I said; "I came to hear your justification or my sentence. You are guilty, I forgive you and I go."