ut wrongs on one side, so that your
situation as a woman of the world may be saved."

She asked, as she cast at him a restless glance:

"Then, what do you advise me?"

"To go back home and to put up with your life there till the day when
you can obtain either a separation or a divorce, with the honors of
war."

"Is not this thing which you advise me to do a little cowardly?"

"No; it is wise and reasonable. You have a high position, a reputation
to safeguard, friends to preserve, and relations to deal with. You
must not lose all these through a mere caprice."

She rose up and said with violence,

"Well, no! I cannot have any more of it! It is at an end! it is at an
end!"

Then, placing her two hands on her lover's shoulders, and looking at
him straight in the face, she asked,

"Do you love me?"

"Yes."

"Really and truly?"

"Yes."

"Then keep me."

He exclaimed,

"Keep you? In my own house? Here? Why you are mad. It would mean
losing you for ever; losing you beyond hope of recall! You are mad!"

She replied slowly and seriously, like a woman who feels the weight of
her words,

"Listen, Jacques. He has forbidden me to see you again, and I will not
play this comedy of coming secretly to your house. You must either
lose me or take me."

"My dear Irene, in that case, obtain your divorce, and I will marry
you."

"Yes, you will marry me in--two years at the soonest. Yours is a
patient love."

"Look here! Reflect! If you remain here, he'll come to-morrow to take
you away, and seeing that he is your husband, seeing that he has right
and law on his side."

"I did not ask you to keep me in your own house, Jacques, but to take
me anywhere you like. I thought you loved me enough to do that. I have
made a mistake. Good-bye!"

She turned round and went towards the door so quickly that he was only
able to catch hold of her when she was outside the room.

"Listen, Irene."

She struggled and did not want to listen to him any longer, her eyes
full of tears, and with these words only on her lips,

"Let me alone! let me alone! let me alone!"

He made her sit down by force, and falling once more on his knees at
her feet, he now brought forward a number of arguments and counsels to
make her understand the folly and terrible risk of her project. He
omitted nothing which he deemed it necessary to say to convince her,
finding even in his very affection for her motives of persuasion.

As she remained silen