Then, after pressing my hand,
she moved away, but turned round several times to look at me again, as
if unable to believe in such a sudden conversion. At last, stopping in
the doorway, she said to me in an affectionate tone:
"You, too, must go and get some rest. You look tired; and for the last
two days you have seemed sad and very much altered. If you do not wish
to make me anxious, you will take care of yourself, Bernard."
She gave me a sweet little nod. In her big eyes, already hollowed by
suffering, there was an indefinable expression, in which distrust and
hope, affection and wonder, were depicted alternately or at times all
together.
"I will take care of myself; I will get some sleep; and I will not be
sad any longer," I answered.
"And you will work?"
"And I will work--but, you, Edmee, will you forgive me for all the pain
I have caused you? and will you try to like me a little?"
"I shall like you very much," she replied, "if you are always as you are
this evening."
On the morrow, at daybreak, I went to the abbe's room. He was already up
and reading.
"Monsieur Aubert," I said to him, "you have several times offered
to give me lessons. I now come to request you to carry out your kind
offer."
I had spent part of the night in preparing this opening speech and in
deciding how I had best comport myself in the abbe's presence. Without
really hating him, for I could quite see that he meant well and that he
bore me ill-will only because of my faults, I felt very bitter towards
him.
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