But when she saw her house surrounded, by her
own orders, with a triple line of bayonets a sudden flash of light
illuminated her soul. She judged her conduct and saw with horror that
she had committed a crime. Under the first shock of this conviction
she sprang to the threshold of the door and stood there irresolute,
striving to think, yet unable to follow out her reasoning. She knew so
vaguely what had happened that she tried in vain to remember why she
was in the antechamber, and why she was leading a strange child by the
hand. A million of stars were floating in the air before her like
tongues of fire. She began to walk about, striving to shake off the
horrible torpor which laid hold of her; but, like one asleep, no
object appeared to her under its natural form or in its own colors.
She grasped the hand of the little boy with a violence not natural to
her, dragging him along with such precipitate steps that she seemed to
have the motions of a madwoman. She saw neither persons nor things in
the salon as she crossed it, and yet she was saluted by three men who
made way to let her pass.
"That must be she," said one of them.
"She is very handsome," exclaimed another, who was a priest.
"Yes," replied the first; "but how pale and agitated--"
"And beside herself," said the third; "she did not even see us."
At the door of her own room Mademoiselle de Verneuil saw the smiling
face of Francine, who whispered to her: "He is here, Marie.
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