nce,--he had sought it out the
night previous,--and thither he now hastened. He bounded up the street
door-steps, but paused a moment as his hand touched the bell. Was he
again about to look upon that face which he had sought with such
fruitless, but frenzied ardor? He thought of those days when all
creation became a blank because that heaven-lit countenance no longer
shone upon him. His brain and heart throbbed and beat at those
tumultuous recollections until both seemed mingled in one wild motion.

He comprehended Madeleine's character so well that he knew he should
find her tranquil and self-possessed; and was he about to enter her
presence as voiceless and unmanned as during their brief rencontre the
day previous?

He turned to descend the steps in the hope of collecting his scattered
faculties, by walking awhile, but the very thought of delaying, even for
a few moments, an interview for which he had so long pined caused him
too sharp anguish for endurance; he seized the bell, and rang with as
sudden an impulse as though he feared the mansion before which he stood
would vanish away, and he would awake from one of the old dreams by
which he had been haunted.

The door opened and he was at once conducted to Madeleine's boudoir.

Madeleine was still sitting before the little table where Gaston de Bois
had left her. The sketch she had commenced lay before her, and the
pencil beside it; but though she had not moved from her seat, the
drawing had not received an additional touch.

As Maurice entered she rose, and advanced toward him, stretching out
both her hands. Closely clasping those extended hands, he gazed upon her
with an expression of rapture. For a moment, the large, clear windows of
her soul opened as naturally and frankly as ever; but his look was so
full of unutterable tenderness that over her betraying eyes the lids
dropped suddenly, and her face crimsoned, it might be with happiness
which she felt bound to conceal.

Madeleine was the first to speak; but the only words she murmured were,
"Maurice!--my dear cousin!"

How her accents thrilled him! How they brought back the time when that
voice, which made all the music of his existence, was suddenly hushed,
and awful silence took its place, leaving the memory of departed tones
ever sounding in his aching, longing ears!

"Madeleine!--have I found you at last? Oh, how long we have been lost to
each other!"

"_You_ have never been lost to _me_," answered