"Never!"

"I believe you!" exclaimed Jeannin, going down on his knees and covering
with his kisses the hand he still held. "I can taste happiness again.
Listen, Angelique. I am leaving Paris; my mother is dead, and I am going
back to Spain. Will you follow me thither?"

"I---follow you?"

"I hesitated long before finding you out, so much did I fear a repulse.
I set out to-morrow. Quit Paris, leave the world which has slandered
you, and come with me. In a fortnight we shall be man and wife."

"You are not in earnest!"

"May I expire at your feet if I am not! Do you want me to sign the oath
with my blood?"

"Rise," she said in a broken voice. "Have I at last found a man to love
me and compensate me for all the abuse that has been showered on my head?
A thousand times I thank you, not for what you are doing for me, but for
the balm you pour on my wounded spirit. Even if you were to say to me
now, 'After all, I am obliged to give you up' the pleasure of knowing you
esteem me would make up for all the rest. It would be another happy
memory to treasure along with my memory of our love, which was
ineffaceable, although you so ungratefully suspected me of having
deceived you."

The treasurer appeared fairly intoxicated with joy. He indulged in a
thousand ridiculous extravagances and exaggerations, and declared himself