I repent of it. Here, as I talk to you, I feel, with no doubt whatever,
that the end of your bold exploit is near. Can you not see that? Ah yes,
you must, you must! Take my horses to-night, leave here, and come back no
more; and so none of us shall feel sorrow in thinking of the time when
Valmond came to Pontiac."
Variable, accusing, she had suddenly shown him something beyond caprice,
beyond accident of mood or temper. The true woman had spoken; all outer
modish garments had dropped away from her real nature, and showed its
abundant depth and sincerity. All that was roused in him this moment was
never known; he never could tell it; there were eternal spaces between
them. She had been speaking to him just now with no personal sentiment.
She was only the lover of honest things, the friend, the good ally,
obliged to flee a cause for its terrible unsoundness, yet trying to
prevent wreck and ruin.
He arose and turned his head away for an instant, her eloquence had been
so moving. His glance caught the picture of the Great Napoleon, and his
eyes met hers again with new resolution.
"I must stay," he answered; "I will not turn back, whatever comes.
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