d sent me about my business."

"And you," interrupted Julien, sarcastically, "you, who had been accepted
as her betrothed, did not know better how to defend your rights than to
suffer yourself to be ejected by a rival, whose intentions, even, you
have not clearly ascertained!"

"By Jove! how could I help it? A fellow that takes an unwilling bride is
playing for too high stakes. The moment I found there was another she
preferred, I had but one course before me--to take myself off."

"And you call that loving!" shouted de Buxieres, "you call that losing
your heart! God in heaven! if I had been in your place, how differently I
should have acted! Instead of leaving, with piteous protestations, I
should have stayed near Reine, I should have surrounded her with
tenderness. I should have expressed my passion with so much force that
its flame should pass from my burning soul to hers, and she would have
been forced to love me! Ah! If I had only thought! if I had dared! how
different it would have been!"

He jerked out his sentences with unrestrained frenzy. He seemed hardly to
know what he was saying, or that he had a listener. Claudet stood
contemplating him in sullen silence: "Aha!" thought he, with bitter
resignation; "I have sounded you at last. I know what is in the bottom of
your heart."

Manette, bringing in the breakfast, interrupted their colloquy, and both
assumed an air of indifference, according to a tacit understanding that a
prudent amount of caution should be observed in her presence. They ate
hurriedly, and as soon as the cloth was removed, and they were again
alone, Julien, glancing with an indefinable expression at Claudet,
muttered savagely:

"Well! what do you decide?"

"I will tell you later," responded the other, briefly.

He quitted the room abruptly, told Manette that he would not be home
until late, and strode out across the fields, his dog following. He had
taken his gun as a blind, but it was useless for Montagnard to raise his
bark; Claudet allowed the hares to scamper away with out sending a single
shot after them. He was busy inwardly recalling the details of the
conversation he had had with his cousin. The situation now was simplified
Julien was in love with Reine, and was vainly combating his overpowering
passion. What reason had he for concealing his love? What motive or
reasoning had induced him, when he was already secretly enamored of the
girl, to push Claudet in front and interfere t