"Come to me," said Eve, "come, Louise! Do you not know that I loved you before I knew you? See, all that surrounds me is your work. What would I not give to have made, like you, one of these bouquets of jasmine!
"Mademoiselle," murmured Louise, "I have known you and have loved you only for a few days; but my gratitude and my affection for you are boundless."
"Place them on Gaston: he is dear to me as a brother; and you, Louise, call me henceforth your sister."
She held her one hand, with the other she drew Gaston forward; then, addressing the marquis:
"Father," she said, "see them before you; bless them, I pray you."
The old gentleman, weeping, extended his hands, then with a voice choked with sobs:
"Eve, my beloved child! Eve, thou wishest then to die?"
The young girl blushed slightly, a ray of sunlight which played through the curtains crowned her with a luminous halo; she had risen, her ethereal figure mingled with the white flowers which adorned her room.
Gaston said in a low voice to Louise:
"You see plainly, my friend, that she is not of the earth."