"Oh, yes, I love him, with all my heart, Gabrielle."
"With all your heart? But you have only known him these few short days."
Cécile sighed.
"Yet it is there," she whispered, laying her little hand over her heart. "I do not understand, for I have never loved before, but I think I loved him from the first moment he stood in the hall and told us that he was my cousin."
"And then you found——"
"Ah, yes—yes, the great cloud came, just when the sun was beginning to shine. But, though I despaired, love did not die, Gabrielle."
"Love cannot die, little cousin. It is for always."
"But it became bitter. Mother of Heaven! how bitter! You do not know the tears I shed—and the shame, when Jéhan told the story."
"And yet you loved him, even though he were a traitor?"
"Yes. But after all, he is no traitor, Gabrielle. He has gone to Varenac to prove it."