For the second time I trust you. Will you trust me a second
time?"
"Ah, Marie, you have brought me to a point where I know not what I do.
I am intoxicated by your words, your looks, by you--by you, and I am
ready to obey you."
"Well, then, make me for an instant very happy. Let me enjoy the only
triumph I desire. I want to breathe freely, to drink of the life I
have dreamed, to feed my illusions before they are gone forever. Come
--come into the ballroom and dance with me."
They re-entered the room together, and though Mademoiselle de Verneuil
was as completely satisfied in heart and vanity as any woman ever
could be, the unfathomable gentleness of her eyes, the demure smile on
her lips, the rapidity of the motions of a gay dance, kept the secret
of her thoughts as the sea swallows those of the criminal who casts a
weighted body into its depths. But a murmur of admiration ran through
the company as, circling in each other's arms, voluptuously
interlaced, with heavy heads, and dimmed sight, they waltzed with a
sort of frenzy, dreaming of the pleasures they hoped to find in a
future union.
A few moments later Mademoiselle de Verneuil and the marquis were in
the latter's travelling-carriage drawn by four horses. Surprised to
see these enemies hand in hand, and evidently understanding each
other, Francine kept silence, not daring to ask her mistress whether
her conduct was that of treachery or love.
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