So I was destined never to be happy, never to lose the memory of my sufferings! When I had decided to forgive Eugénie, to give my children a mother, the sight of that Lucile must needs recall everything that I wanted to forget. How she stared at me! She seemed to enjoy the torture, the shame that her presence caused me. Malice gleamed in her eyes.—Ah! I had hoped that I never should see Lucile again!
I threw myself down on the turf and tried to be calm. After all, my chance meeting with that woman would make no change in my plans. I would learn to control myself better in the future; but I would travel a hundred leagues, if necessary, to avoid meeting Lucile.
I lay in that spot nearly half an hour. At last, feeling more tranquil, I rose; but I could not decide whether I would return to the ball. Ernest was waiting for me, no doubt. I walked a few steps, then stopped, for I did not want to see Lucile again. While I was hesitating, a woman came toward me from the direction of the dance. She was almost running. I waited anxiously.—Ah! it was Caroline.
She joined me and hung upon my arm, saying:
“I have found you at last! I have been looking for you everywhere.—Oh! how glad I am! But come—let us go into the woods, so that I may speak out to you at last. I have so many things to say to you! I told my uncle not to be worried, that you would bring me home.”
I listened to Caroline in amazement; some extraordinary change seemed to have taken place in her; she was not at all the same person whom I had left a short time before. She took my arm and pressed it gently; she seemed intensely agitated, but it was evidently with joy.
We went into the woods, and Caroline said, gazing affectionately into my face:
“I must seem very mad, very reckless to you, my friend, but you have no idea of all that I have just gone through! Within a few moments, my destiny, my future has changed. Now I can be happy. I loved you—you know it, for I have not been able to conceal my feeling for you. Without telling each other so, we understood each other perfectly.—But that love was a crime; at least I thought so. I blamed myself for it; I tried to avoid you, to forget you.—Mon Dieu! how unhappy I was!—But now I know the whole truth; I know that I am at liberty to love you.”
“What? what do you mean?”
“That I know all.—Oh! forgive me for questioning that woman, but I could not resist my curiosity. Your confusion at the sight of her seemed so strange!”