The Message by Honoré de Balzac
page 19 of 20 (95%)
page 19 of 20 (95%)
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part of him she loved. Ah! if you had felt, as I felt then, her
burning tears falling on your hands, you would know what gratitude is, when it follows so closely upon the benefit. Her eyes shone with a feverish glitter, a faint ray of happiness gleamed out of her terrible suffering, as she grasped my hands in hers, and said, in a choking voice: "Ah! you love! May you be happy always. May you never lose her whom you love." She broke off, and fled away with her treasure. Next morning, this night-scene among my dreams seemed like a dream; to make sure of the piteous truth, I was obliged to look fruitlessly under my pillow for the packet of letters. There is no need to tell you how the next day went. I spent several hours of it with the Juliette whom my poor comrade had so praised to me. In her lightest words, her gestures, in all that she did and said, I saw proofs of the nobleness of soul, the delicacy of feeling which made her what she was, one of those beloved, loving, and self-sacrificing natures so rarely found upon this earth. In the evening the Comte de Montpersan came himself as far as Moulins with me. There he spoke with a kind of embarrassment: "Monsieur, if it is not abusing your good-nature, and acting very inconsiderately towards a stranger to whom we are already under obligations, would you have the goodness, as you are going to Paris, to remit a sum of money to M. de ---- (I forget the name), |
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