Gustave seized Adolphine's hands and fell at her feet.
"Then it is true!" he cried; "you do love me? Ah! my whole life will be too short to pay you for this love! How many days of happiness I owe you in exchange for the torments I have caused you!"
"But it wasn't your fault, Gustave; you could not guess that I loved you. Besides, you loved my sister then; but now you don't love her any more, do you? Oh! tell me again that you don't love her!"
"As if it were possible for me to love her! Ah! my heart does not divide its allegiance, and now it is yours, yours only!"
"Mon Dieu! I must be dreaming, I am so happy!—Madeleine! Madeleine! come here! It is I whom he loves, it is I whom he wants to marry—and he knows that I will never refuse him!"
Madeleine was not far away. Servants are never far from people who are talking. She came skipping into the room like a crazy person, for she was really happy in her mistress's happiness.
"We were just talking about you when you came, monsieur," she said to Gustave; "I often talk about you to mamzelle, because I have found that that's the best way to make her listen to me. Dame! I'm from the country, but I guessed, all the same, what made mamzelle so sad; and now I'm sure that she'll be happy like me! and that she'll sing and dance like me!"
Monsieur Gerbault's arrival put an end to Madeleine's antics. He was surprised, as usual, to find Gustave in his house; but he was especially impressed on this occasion by the joy and happiness which he read on every face.
"Bless my soul!" he said, shaking hands with Gustave; "are you just back from the war, my friend? At all events, you have received a wound which proves that you don't turn your back on the foe."
"No, monsieur; it's the result of a duel. I am not quarrelsome, as you know, but a man cannot always be sure of himself."