s aversion for me; it
is only what I deserve. I have done all I could to atone for my errors.
But, is it altogether in her power to forget a past which has doubtless
caused her too much pain? However, if she does not forgive me, I will
imitate her severity: I will not forgive myself. Abandoning all hope in
this world, I will tear myself away from her and you, and chasten myself
with a punishment worse than death."

"That's it! Go on! There's an end of everything!" said the chevalier,
throwing the tongs into the fire. "That is just what you have been
aiming at, I suppose, Edmee?"

I had moved a few steps towards the door; I was suffering intensely.
Edmee ran after me, took me by the arm, and brought me back towards her
father.

"It is cruel and most ungrateful of you to say that," she said. "Does
it show a modest spirit and generous heart, to forget a friendship, a
devotion, I may even venture to say, a fidelity of seven years, because
I ask to prove you for a few months more? And even if my affection for
you should never be as deep as yours for me, is what I have hitherto
shown you of so little account that you despise it and reject it,
because you are vexed at not inspiring me with precisely as much as you
think you are entitled to? You know at this rate a woman would have no
right to feel affection. However, tell me, is it your wish to punish
me for having been a mother to you by leaving me altogether, or to make
some return only on condition that I become your slave?"

"No, Edmee, no," I replied, with my heart breaking and my eyes full of
tears, as I raised her hand to my lips; "I feel that you have done far
more for me than I deserved; I feel that it would be idle to think of
tearing myself from your presence; but can you account it a crime in me
to suffer by your side? In any case it is so involuntary, so inevitable
a crime, that it must needs escape all your reproaches and all my own
remorse. But let us talk of this no more. It is all I can do. Grant me
your friendship still; I shall hope to show myself always worthy of you
in the future."

"Come, kiss each other," said the chevalier, much affected, "and never
separate. Bernard, however capricious Edmee may seem, never abandon
her, if you would deserve the blessing of your foster-father. Though you
should never be her husband, always be a brother to her. Remember, my
lad, that she will soon be alone in the world, and that I shall die
in sorrow if I do not ca