"Oh, Diane, Diane! I love you!" he cried from the bottom of his heart.
"And I love you, too, Gabriel," Diane replied, fearlessly, and as if in obedience to an irresistible impulse of her heart.
How their faces came nearer together; how their lips met; how in that long, sweet kiss, their very souls were blended, God only knows; certain it is that they did not know themselves.
But suddenly Gabriel, who felt his reason trembling in the vertigo of happiness, tore himself away from Diane.
"Diane, leave me!" he almost shrieked, with a note of horror in his voice, "let me fly!"
"Fly! and why, pray?" she asked wonderingly.
"Oh, Diane, Diane! if you should turn out to be my sister!" replied Gabriel, beside himself.
"Your sister!" echoed Diane, overwhelmed, paralyzed. Gabriel checked himself, dismayed and like one stunned by his own words; drawing his hand across his burning brow, he asked in a loud voice,—
"What did I say?"
"What did you say, really?" said Diane. "Must I believe it to be literally true, that fearful word? What is the key to this terrible mystery? Can I really be your sister? Oh, mon Dieu!"