"Alas! I begin to think I ought to have been here yesterday," said Gabriel. "If Madame de Poitiers is here, it can be with no good purpose, nor to fulfil any pious maternal duty. Let us go to the Benedictine convent, if you please, Master Jean. I am in greater haste than ever now to see Madame de Castro, for I fear that she needs me. Come, let us hurry!"
Gabriel was shown without objection into the parlor of the convent, where he had been expected since the preceding day.
Diane was waiting in the parlor with her mother. Gabriel, upon seeing her once more after so long a separation, was carried away by an irresistible impulse, and fell on his knees, pale and dejected, before the grating which separated them forever from each other.
"My sister! my sister!" was all he could say.
"My brother!" replied Sister Bénie, softly.
A tear rolled slowly down her cheek; but at the same time she smiled as the angels should smile.
Gabriel, turning his head slightly, met the gaze of the other Diane, Madame de Poitiers. She was laughing, as demons should laugh.
But Gabriel, with careless contempt for her exasperating demeanor, concentrated his regard and his thought entirely upon Sister Bénie.
"My sister!" he repeated eagerly, and with bitter anguish.
Diane de Poitiers at this point coldly remarked,—