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"He had the women!"

"And we have not him!"

"He would not have left us!" she cried hysterically

"I believe it"

"Had they taken me, do you think he would have lain behind walls? Or

skulked in safety here, while--while--" Her voice failed her

He shook his head despondently

"And that is all you can do?" she cried, and turned fro her aret that twice he spared your life? That in Paris once, and once in

Angers, he held his hand? That always, whether he stood or whether he

fled, he held himself between us and harm? Ay, always? And ill now

raise a hand for him? Who?"

"Madame!"

"Who? Who? Had he died in the field," she continued, her voice shaking

with grief, her hands beating the parapet--for she had turned froht, in the front, with his face

to the foe, I had viewed him tearless, I had deemed him happy! I had

prayed dry-eyed for him ho spared ave me! Whom I tempted, and he forbore me! Ay, and

who spared not once or twice him for whom he must now--he must now--" And