“I do not quite understand.” She frowned over her words. “He is recovered?”
“He will never completely recover.”
“Monseigneur, you frighten me. What has happened to Luc?”
“Whatever has happened it can make no difference to us who love him,” answered the Marquis. His eyes held Clémence with a power before which she blenched.
“No, of course not,” she said in a laboured way “But—I am sorry for Luc,” she ended feebly.
“Mademoiselle,” replied M. de Vauvenargues proudly, “this is not a thing one is sorry for. It is a great tragedy.”
“A—tragedy?”
“The word frightens you? But remember that it is in your power to soften it. Luc has lost everything—but you.”
“Oh!” she murmured again. “Yet if he is well——”
The Marquis lifted his head still higher, never taking his eyes from her changing face.