Fromont and Risler -- Volume 3

ut, after all, is it a crime for us to love? We were destined for each other. Have we not the right to come together, although life has parted us? So, c

AN

complishing it. It was no easy matter to pervert an honest young heart like Frantz's to the point of committing a crime; and in that strange contest, in which the one who really loved fought against his own cause, she had ofte

here. She had just arrived, laden with complaints from Georges, who was horribly bored away from his mistress, and was b

ow, the poor, dear, fell

ou could see ho

carefully hidden between the leaves of her songs, delighted to be involved in this love-story, to give vent to her

nt going and coming of love-letters, the youthful and attractive Do

message under her wing, that odd carrier-pigeon remained tru

her Frantz's note,

l you writ

ady written.

l go away with

aughed sc

serable enough for the last month. Just consider that I have changed my whole life for my gentleman! I have had to close my doors and give up seeing my friends and everybody I know

g to tell her husband her guilty secret. From that moment she had felt decidedly ill at ease, and her life, her dear life, which she so petted and coddle

of his disappointment, knowing that she had such a weapon in her hands; and if he did speak, she would show the lett

lon, threw the windows wide open to the sunlight, gave orders to the cook, the coachman, the gardener. The house must be made

ned the leaves of an old handbook of mechanics, Sidonie sang to Madame Dobson's accompaniment. Suddenly

ooked up

you laug

ame into my head," repl

and pointing

ing, and she was thinking of her lover

shly awaited, a great calm had come over his troubled mind, like the sudden remova

's despair, of the ghastly drama they were to leave behind them. He saw a sweet little pale face resting beside his in the railway train, a blooming lip

hat gloomy station which, in the distant quarter of Paris in which it is situated, seems like a first haltin

hurrying along, calling to one another, to see if he could not discern that graceful figure sudd

d as a church on weekdays. The time for the ten o'clock train was drawing near. There was no other tr

l made him start. He fancied that he saw her enter, closely veiled, hesitating, a li

was but a quarter of an hour more. It alarmed him; but the bell at the wicket, which

said. It seemed to him as if that w

him as they ran. The drivers shouted, "Take care!" He stood there among the wheels of the cabs, under the horses'

she ap

in black, slender and graceful, accompanied b

f fashion like her, with a happy face. A man, also young, joined them. It was evident

th a hissing sound, mingled with the hurried footsteps of belated passengers, the slamming

hand is placed

at

dinois, surrounded by a travelling-

Risler. Are you going to Marseilles

in, and is going to try to connect with Savigny by the L

! our young men need to be careful. At the rate they're sailing their ship, the same thing is likely to hap

er's ruin, the destruction of the whole world, nothing is

re the station is empty. The uproar has been transferred to the line of the railway, and suddenly a

clock trai

eres; but, knowing that he is waiting for her, she will come, no matter ho

which at that hour the lamp burns low on a table laden with humming-birds and insects, but that vision pass

in darkness, were already beginning to stand out distinctly against the brightening sky. What was he to d

ce, passing soldiers with their knapsacks on their backs, and poor people wh

a of the night about to reach its denouement before the Commissioner of Police. Ah! if Frantz had known wha

quay, all stood forth with that matutinal sharpness of outline which gives the impression of a new day emerging, luminous and smiling, from the dense mists of the night. From a

one hailed him

rantz. How earl

man taking his horses

at the house?" inquir

nsieur

rother a

r slept at t

one

antz, no one, so

ing the paths. The house was astir; and, early as it was, he heard Sidonie's voic

mation. Frantz, deeply m

gh. Be sure that it's well frozen and ready at

e famous dinner-party for the next day. Her brother

ice directly. We're to have some people to dinner to-morrow, custome

menu, inhaling the cool air that rose from the fields and the river. There was not the slightest trace of chagrin or anxiet

bourgeois dinner pass before him in their regular order, from the little hot pates, the sole Normande and t

ne and he was able to speak

u receive

es, of

tle curl or two entangled with her floating ribbon

f the vile stories about me that you have threatened me with, I could easily satisfy him that the only source of your lying tale

effect, she passed him and left the room smiling, with a little curl at the