as raining; you went out in a
carriage. I might have followed you and learned where you were going if I
wished to do it. I did not do it. I do not wish to do what would
displease you."

She extended her hand to him.

"I thank you. I knew I should not regret the trust I have placed in you."

Alarmed, impatient, fearing what more he might say, she tried to escape
him.

"Farewell! You have all life before you. You should be happy. Appreciate
it, and do not torment yourself about things that are not worth the
trouble."

He stopped her with a look. His face had changed to the violent and
resolute expression which she knew.

"I have told you I must speak to you. Listen to me for a minute."

She was thinking of Jacques, who was waiting for her. An occasional
passer-by looked at her and went on his way. She stopped under the black
branches of a tree, and waited with pity and fright in her soul.

He said:

"I forgive you and forget everything. Take me back. I will promise never
to say a word of the past."

She shuddered, and made a movement of surprise and distaste so natural
that he stopped. Then, after a moment of reflection:

"My proposition to you is not an ordinary one, I know it well. But I have
reflected. I have thought of everything. It is the only possible thing.
Think of it, Therese, and do not reply at once."

"It would be wrong to deceive you. I can not, I will not do what you say;
and you know the reason why."

A cab was passing slowly near them. She made a sign to the coachman to
stop. Le Menil kept her a moment longer.

"I knew you would say this to me, and that is the reason why I say to
you, do not reply at once."

Her fingers on the handle of the door, she turned on him the glance of
her gray eyes.

It was a painful moment for him. He recalled the time when he saw those
charming gray eyes gleam under half-closed lids. He smothered a sob, and
murmured:

"Listen; I can not live without you. I love you. It is now that I love
you. Formerly I did not know."

And while she gave to the coachman, haphazard, the address of a tailor,
Le Menil went away.

The meeting gave her much uneasiness and anxiety. Since she was forced to
meet him again, she would have preferred to see him violent and brutal,
as he had been at Florence. At the corner of the avenue she said to the
coachman:

"To the Ternes."

CHAPTER XXXII

THE RED LILY

It was Friday, at the opera. The curtain had fallen on Fau