"
"It is thus I love," said Claire with simplicity.
This answer crushed the magistrate. He could understand it. He knew that
for him there was no hope; but he felt a terrible enjoyment in torturing
himself, and proving his misfortune by intense suffering.
"But," insisted he, "how have you known him, spoken to him? Where? When?
Madame d'Arlange receives no one."
"I ought now to tell you everything, sir," answered Claire proudly.
"I have known him for a long time. It was at the house of one of my
grandmother's friends, who is a cousin of his,--old Mademoiselle Goello,
that I saw him for the first time. There we spoke to each other; there
we meet each other now."
"Ah!" exclaimed M. Daburon, whose eyes were suddenly opened, "I remember
now. A few days before your visit to Mademoiselle Goello, you are gayer
than usual; and, when you return, you are often sad."
"That is because I see how much he is pained by the obstacles he cannot
overcome."
"Is his family, then, so illustrious," asked the magistrate harshly,
"that it disdains alliance with yours?"
"I should have told you everything, without waiting to be questioned,
sir," answered Mademoiselle d'Arlange, "even his name.
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