"But I see you once more! I am happy!"
He did not fail to let her know that, as soon as he heard of their misfortune, he had hastened to their house.
"I was fully aware of it!"
"How?"
She had seen him in the street outside the house, and had hidden herself.
"Why did you do that?"
Then, in a trembling voice, and with long pauses between her words:
"I was afraid! Yes—afraid of you and of myself!"
This disclosure gave him, as it were, a shock of voluptuous joy. His heart began to throb wildly. She went on:
"Excuse me for not having come sooner." And, pointing towards the little pocket-book covered with golden palm-branches: