let us preserve our dignity. You still love me," she said, with a sad,
sweet gaze at the Colonel, "but have not I been authorized to form
other ties? In so strange a position, a secret voice bids me trust to
your kindness, which is so well known to me. Can I be wrong in taking
you as the sole arbiter of my fate? Be at once judge and party to the
suit. I trust in your noble character; you will be generous enough to
forgive me for the consequences of faults committed in innocence. I
may then confess to you: I love M. Ferraud. I believed that I had a
right to love him. I do not blush to make this confession to you; even
if it offends you, it does not disgrace us. I cannot conceal the
facts. When fate made me a widow, I was not a mother."

The Colonel with a wave of his hand bid his wife be silent, and for a
mile and a half they sat without speaking a single word. Chabert could
fancy he saw the two little ones before him.

"Rosine."

"Monsieur?"

"The dead are very wrong to come to life again."

"Oh, monsieur, no, no! Do not think me ungrateful. Only, you find me a
lover, a mother, while you left me merely a wife. Though it is no
longer in my power to love, I know how much I owe you, and I can still
offer you all the affection of a daughter."

"Rosine," said the old man in a softened tone, "I no longer feel any
resentment against you. We will forget anything," he added, with one
of those smiles which always reflect a noble soul; "I have not so