said again, still without turning round:

"Send Max."

I rose and walked slowly to where she stood. Hearing my movement, she
faced me.

"Send Max," she said again, holding out her hands toward me, clasped
together. "I--I can't stay here like--in the way you say. And you? How
could you do it?"

"You would go with him?" I exclaimed.

"Of course."

"For five years?"

"When I come back," she said, "you will be twenty-five. You will be
married to Elsa. I shall be thirty-four. There will be no difficulty
about how we are to treat one another when I come back, Augustin."

"My God!" I murmured, looking in her eyes. As I looked they filled with
tears.

"My dear, my dear," she said, raising her arms and setting her hands on
my shoulders, "I have never forgotten that I was a fool. Yes, once, for
a few moments yesterday. I shall remember at Paris what a fool I was,
and I shan't forget it when I come back. Only I wish it didn't break
one's heart to be a fool."

"I won't let you go; I won't send him. I can't."

"Will it be better to have it happen here gradually before my eyes every
day? I should kill myself. I couldn't bear it. I should see you finding
out, changing, forgetting, laughing. Oh, what a miserable woman I am!"
She turned away suddenly and flung herself into an armchair.

"Why did you do it?" she cried. "Why did you?"

"I loved you."

"Yes, yes, yes. That's the absurdity, the horrible absurdity. And I
loved you, and I love you. Isn't it funny?" She laughed hysterically.
"How funny we shall think it soon! When I come back from Paris! No,
before then! We shall laugh about it!" She broke into sobs, hiding her
face in her hands.

"I shall never laugh about it," I said.

"Shan't you?" she asked, looking up and gazing intently at me. Then she
rose and came toward me. "No, I don't think you will. Don't, dear. But
I don't think you will. You won't laugh about it, will you? You won't
laugh, Caesar?"

I bent low and kissed her hand. I should have broken down had I tried to
speak. As I raised my head from her hand, she kissed my brow. Then she
wiped her eyes, saying:

"You'll send Max to Paris? You promised me this Embassy. You shall be
good and great and independent, and all you say you mean to be and must
be afterward. But you promised me this Embassy. Well, I ask your promise
of you. I ask it for Max."

"You would go away from me?"

"Yes. I want to grow old away from you. I ask the Embassy for Max."