I speak to you as a kind and devoted brother.
I say to you: 'Courage, Claire, resign yourself to the saddest, the
greatest sacrifice which honour can ask of a young girl. Weep, yes, weep
for your deceived love; but forget it. Pray heaven to help you do so. He
whom you have loved is no longer worthy of you.'"
The magistrate stopped slightly frightened. Mademoiselle d'Arlange had
become livid.
But though the body was weak, the soul still remained firm.
"You said, just now," she murmured, "that he could only have committed
this crime in a moment of distraction, in a fit of madness?"
"Yes, it is possible."
"Then, sir, not knowing what he did, he can not be guilty."
The investigating magistrate forgot a certain troublesome question which
he put to himself one morning in bed after his illness.
"Neither justice nor society, mademoiselle," he replied, "can take that
into account. God alone, who sees into the depths of our hearts, can
judge, can decide those questions which human justice must pass by. In
our eyes, M. de Commarin is a criminal. There may be certain extenuating
circumstances to soften the punishment; but the moral effect will be the
same.
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