“Oh, be sure I shall come. Did your father charge you with any message for me?”
“He thanks you for your pass, which he returns to you, and begs you to join him as soon as possible.”
“Whenever it may be your desire to go,” I said, with a strange sensation at my heart.
“At least, I must know where I am to join him,” she said. “Ah, you are not yet rid of me!”
I seized her hand and pressed it against my heart, but she offered me her brow, as on the previous evening, and said: “Until to-morrow.”
I kissed her on the brow; but now I no longer strained her hand against my breast, but her heaving bosom, her throbbing heart.
I went home in a state of delirious ecstasy such as I had never experienced. Was it the consciousness of a generous action, or was it love for this adorable creature? I know not whether I slept or woke. I only know that all the harmonies of nature were singing within me; that the night seemed endless, and the day eternal; I know that though I wished to speed the time, I did not wish to lose a moment of the days still to come.
The next day I was in the Rue Ferou at nine o’clock. At half-past nine Solange made her appearance.
She approached me and threw her arms around my neck.
“Saved!” she said; “my father is saved! And this I owe you. Oh, how I love you!”