looked at her
with a mingling of love and terror, as I thought of all that I was ready
to suffer for her sake.

"Do you know what I am thinking of?"

"No."

"Of a plan that has come into my head."

"And what is this plan?"

"I can't tell you yet, but I can tell you what the result would be. The
result would be that in a month I should be free, I should have no more
debts, and we could go and spend the summer in the country."

"And you can't tell me by what means?"

"No, only love me as I love you, and all will succeed."

"And have you made this plan all by yourself?"

"Yes."

"And you will carry it out all by yourself?"

"I alone shall have the trouble of it," said Marguerite, with a smile
which I shall never forget, "but we shall both partake its benefits."

I could not help flushing at the word benefits; I thought of Manon
Lescaut squandering with Desgrieux the money of M. de B.

I replied in a hard voice, rising from my seat:

"You must permit me, my dear Marguerite, to share only the benefits of
those enterprises which I have conceived and carried out myself."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that I have a strong suspicion that M. de G. is to be your
associate in this pretty plan, of which I can accept neither the cost
nor the benefits."

"What a child you are! I thought you loved me. I was mistaken; all
right."

She rose, opened the piano and began to play the "Invitation a la Valse",
as far as the famous passage in the major which always stopped her. Was
it through force of habit, or was it to remind me of the day when we
first met? All I know is that the melody brought back that recollection,
and, coming up to her, I took her head between my hands and kissed her.
"You forgive me?" I said.

"You see I do," she answered; "but observe that we are only at our
second day, and already I have had to forgive you something. Is this how
you keep your promise of blind obedience?"

"What can I do, Marguerite? I love you too much and I am jealous of the
least of your thoughts. What you proposed to me just now made me frantic
with delight, but the mystery in its carrying out hurts me dreadfully."

"Come, let us reason it out," she said, taking both my hands and looking
at me with a charming smile which it was impossible to resist, "You love
me, do you not? and you would gladly spend two or three months alone
with me in the country? I too should be glad of this solitude a deux,
and not only glad of