The White House Part 58

"The time seemed very long to me, too; I was bored. I looked very often at the road by which you come. You have accustomed me to seeing you; you have done wrong, for after all, you will not always remain in this region, and then I shall not see you any more, and it seems to me that I shall not be so happy as I used to be."

"Dear Isaure! But would it be to me or to Alfred that you would give the keenest regrets? To-day I have come without him, I am defying his anger, for I am determined to know at last what I may hope. Yes, yes, I love you, Isaure; I feel for you the most pa.s.sionate, the most sincere love; I have tried for some time to fight against it; but I feel that it is impossible for me, I feel that this love is now a part of my existence.

And why should I fear to give myself up to it? I am free, I am my own master; and if you love me, who can object to our union? But it is necessary that you should love me, that you should prefer me to Alfred.

Oh! speak, confess to me frankly what is taking place in your heart.

Isaure, you would not, you could not, deceive me."

Isaure timidly cast down her eyes, and withdrew her hand from Edouard's, faltering:

"So it is true! You do love me? He did not deceive me?"

"Who, pray?"

"That poor man--you know, that stranger who is wandering about our mountains."

"Have you seen him?"

"Yes, the day before yesterday, after you had gone, he came into my house. I asked him to rest, and he remained quite a long time. He kept his eyes fixed on me all the time, and with such a strange expression!

Ah! it was not like you! For, instead of giving me pleasure, it frightened me."

"Did that villain insult you?"

"No! oh, no! he simply said to me--what you yourself have just said--that it was love which brought you to me; and then he asked me which of you I preferred."

"Who has authorized him to question you concerning your most secret feelings? Ah! when I meet him again, I will chastise his insolence!"

"Oh! do not be angry with him, I beg you; the man is unfortunate; he says that all the world has deserted him! You must not make him any unhappier. No doubt he questioned me for his own amus.e.m.e.nt, but he did not insist when he saw that I did not like it. You will not say anything to him, will you?"

"How kind-hearted you are! But you are right, we must forget that man.

Ah, dear Isaure, you will answer me; you will let me read your heart?"

"What do you want me to say to you?"

"Which do you prefer, Alfred or me?"

"Oh, dear! I love to see you both."

"Both equally?"

The girl blushed; she did not know how to express what she felt. Edouard approached her, gently put his arm about her waist and said to her tenderly:

"If Alfred should not come to see you again, would you be very much disappointed?"

"Why, I should think of him sometimes,--we would talk together about him; that is all."

"And suppose it were I who did not come again--would you console yourself in the same way by talking with him?"

"Oh! never, never!" cried the girl, in a tone that came from her heart.

"Dear Isaure! then it is I whom you love with love!"

Isaure softly raised her beautiful blue eyes to Edouard's face; her expression, in which her whole soul was depicted, left no possible doubt in his mind who was master of her heart. In his intoxication, Edouard embraced her and imprinted a kiss on her lips. Instantly they heard a mocking laugh behind them.

The lovers turned their heads, but they saw no one.

"Didn't you hear something?" asked Isaure anxiously.

"Yes, I thought--but I see no one about. Ah! what do we care for the world? What is the whole universe to me? You love me, dear Isaure! That a.s.surance is perfect bliss to me! You love me, you are an orphan, you are dependent upon n.o.body; I too am my own master, and I shall be your husband! Yes, I shall be deemed worthy of so many charms, of such perfect innocence! Ah! I have known society sufficiently to be sure I could never find there anyone to be compared with you, and besides, your education and your manners are not those of a peasant; if I should desire to present you in society, you would be its brightest ornament.

But no, we will live apart, for each other; to make us happy we shall have no need of those noisy dissipations of which you know nothing. My fortune is more than sufficient to satisfy all our wishes. I will buy a house in some lovely country district; I shall take delight in teaching you music and drawing myself, in reading with you those famous authors who enlighten our minds and rejoice our hearts; and if my inclination for letters, for the stage, calls me sometimes to Paris, I shall return to your arms to seek repose from the fatigues of the city. Ah! This prospect promises me the most blissful of lives; tell me that it will make you happy, too!"

For some moments past, while listening to Edouard, Isaure had become pensive, and her eyes no longer bore the expression of pleasure which had animated them; it seemed that her mind had been invaded by melancholy memories and new reflections; Edouard noticed this change, for the girl's slightest feelings were expressed at once upon her features.

"What is the matter?" he asked anxiously. "Are you angry that I have read your heart, that I know that you love me?"

"Oh, no, it isn't that," replied the girl, with a sigh. "Why should I hide from you what I feel? One should always say what one thinks, should not one?"

"Yes, always."

"But perhaps I have done wrong to love you! I ought first to have found out--However, I did not try to resist--what I felt when I saw you was such perfect bliss!"

"Well, Isaure, why these regrets now that I swear to love you all my life, and propose to make you my wife?"

"Your wife!" replied the girl sadly, glancing at the White House. "Ah, yes! I should be very happy then; but perhaps it is not possible!"

"Why not? Aren't you an orphan, alone on earth, since you lost the good people who adopted you?"

Isaure did not reply for some time, but at last she said, lowering her eyes:

"Yes, I am an orphan, I have no parents."

"Well! Who could interpose any obstacle to our happiness? Who could prevent you from being mine, from never parting from me any more?"

Isaure seemed deeply agitated; after glancing about her with an expression of dread, she put out her hand, pointed to the White House, and said to Edouard in a very low tone:

"I can never go away from that house."

Edouard was thunderstruck; he gazed in amazement at the White House, to which she pointed, then turned his eyes anxiously upon the girl again; he seemed to await some further explanation. But Isaure said no more.

"What!" said Edouard at last, "you can never go away from that deserted house? Pray, what powerful reason compels you to remain near that house?"

"I cannot tell," replied Isaure, under her breath.

"What is this mystery, this obstacle which you conceal from me? You have secrets from me, when I propose to devote my life to you, to unite myself to you by indissoluble bonds! Oh! speak, I implore you, conceal nothing from me!"

"I cannot speak. Pray, forgive me for causing you pain! If it rested only with me----"

"Dear Isaure! is it some promise, some oath that you gave your adopted mother? Perhaps she ordered you never to leave these mountains. But reflect that, if your parents were alive, they could not disapprove of my love! This house at which you point so mysteriously has long been uninhabited; it does not belong to you, because if I am to believe what I have been told, your adopted father sold it shortly after taking you into his family; and you cannot go away from it, you say! Come, confess that there is underneath all this some absurd, inconsiderate promise.

Tell me the whole story, and I will soon satisfy you that you are entirely at liberty to dispose of your future."

"At liberty to dispose of my future!" replied the girl earnestly; "oh, no! I am not!"