“Was that what he tried to say at the bridge? What a fool I was not to listen! If I had all the world to give, I’d give it to you!”
He tried to seize her hand again, but she drew it away.
“And so,” she said, with a crooked smile and a flaming face, “since you say that you love me, I—I have to pay the just debt of my house and save its honor—I must marry you whether I love you or not.”
He looked at her with fear renewed.
“Then you have changed?” he asked.
Suddenly she put her own right hand to her lips and kissed the fingers on which his lips had rested.
“You have all the world,” she said.... “Give it me.”
He found both of her hands this time, but still she kept him from her. The scent of the lilacs mingled with another scent—a scent that made him see again the tall Cantabrians.... Suddenly he realized that she was wearing her student-blouse.
“You’ve been here—When did you come back to Paris?”
“A week ago.”