the first of men in wisdom and intelligence as you are already
the first in greatness of heart? You are paying dearly for my ambition,
since it has been interpreted as scorn and hatred. You have good reason
to hate me, since my pride has brought you to the felon's dock. But I
will wash away your shame by a signal reparation; though they send you
to the scaffold, you shall go there with the title of my husband."

"Your generosity is carrying you too far, Edmee de Mauprat," said the
president. "It would seem that, in order to save your relative, you are
accusing yourself of coquetry and unkindness; for, how otherwise do
you explain the fact that you exasperated this young man's passion by
refusing him for seven years?"

"Perhaps, sir," replied Edmee archly, "the court is not competent to
judge this matter. Many women think it no great crime to show a little
coquetry with the man they love. Perhaps we have a right to this when
we have sacrificed all other men to him. After all, it is a very natural
and very innocent ambition to make the man of one's choice feel that
one is a soul of some price, that one is worth wooing, and worth a long
effort. True, if this coquetry resulted in the condemnation of one's
lover to death, one would speedily correct one's self of it. But,
naturally, gentlemen, you would not think of atoning for my cruelty by
offering the poor young man such a consolation as this."

After saying these words in an animated, ironical tone, Edmee burst
into tears. This nervous sensibility which brought to the front all the
qualities of her soul and mind, tenderness, courage, delicacy, pride,
modesty, gave her face at the same time an expression so varied, so
winning in all its moods, that the grave, sombre assembly of judges let
fall the brazen cuirass of impassive integrity and the leaden cope of
hypocritical virtue. If Edmee had not triumphantly defended me by her
confession, she had at least roused the greatest interest in my favour.
A man who is loved by a beautiful woman carries with him a talisman that
makes him invulnerable; all feel that his life is of greater value than
other lives.

Edmee still had to submit to many questions; she set in their proper
light the facts which had been misrepresented by Mademoiselle Leblanc.
True, she spared me considerably; but with admirable skill she managed
to elude certain questions, and so escaped the necessity of either lying
or condemning me. She generously took