Part 96 (1/2)
”Oh, yes, madame, I can assure you of that”
”Really?” said the h!” said Fouquet
”What ht bitterness of expression; ”and how evident it is that you fear the least suspicion of your a made public?”
”Oh, no; you act like a delicate
”Come, dear marquise, punish me not with reproaches, I iht to make you any?”
”No, unfortunately, no; but tella year I have loved without return or hope--”
”You are mistaken--without hope it is true, but not without return”
”What! for me, of my love! there is but one proof, and that proof I still want”
”I a it, monsieur”
Fouquet wished to clasp her in his aresture
”You persist in deceiving yourself,I aive you--devotion”
”Ah, then, you do not love me? Devotion is but a virtue, love is a passion”
”Listen to me, I implore you: I should not have come hither without a serious motive: you are well assured of that, are you not?”
”The motive is of very little consequence, so that you are but here--so that I see you--so that I speak to you!”
”You are right; the principal thing is that I a seen me, and that I can speak to you”--Fouquet sank on his knees before her ”Speak! speak, madame!” said he, ”I listen to you”
The marquise looked at Fouquet, on his knees at her feet, and there was in the looks of the woe th ht of seeing you everyto you every instant! would that I were she who ht watch over you, she ould have no need of s to summon and cause to appear, like a sylph, the man she loves, to look at him for an hour, and then see hie at his going out than at his co in Oh! that would be to live like a happy wo, ”to be speaking of my wife?”
”Yes, certainly, of her I spoke”
”Well, you need not envy her lot, marquise; of all the women hom I have had any relations, Madame Fouquet is the one I see the least of, and who has the least intercourse with me”
”At least, monsieur, she is not reduced to place, as I have done, her hand upon the ornalass to call you to her; at least you do not reply to her by theof which comes from I don't knohere; at least you have not forbidden her to endeavor to discover the secret of these co off forever your connections with her, as you have forbidden all who come here before me, and ill come after me”
”Dear marquise, how unjust you are, and how little do you knohat you are doing in thus exclaiainst mystery; it is with mystery alone we can love without trouble; it is with love without trouble alone that we can be happy But let us return to ourselves, to that devotion of which you were speaking, or rather letdelusion, and believe this devotion is love”
”Just now,” repeated the ht have been a raceful contours of antiquity; ”just noas prepared to speak, my ideas were clear and bold; now I a you bad news”