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"Mademoiselle will see you, monsieur," said Anatole at last

Twice already had he carried unavailingly my request that Roxalanne should accord me an interview ere I departed On this the third occasion I had bidden him say that I would not stir fro ly that threat had prevailed where entreaties had been scorned

I followed Anatole fro into the salon overlooking the terraces and the river, where Roxalanne awaitedat the farther end of the rooh ere already in the first week of October, the air of Languedoc was as warm and balmy as that of Paris or Picardy is in summer

I advanced to the centre of the chamber, and there I paused and waited until it should please her to acknowledgeI had seen much, I had learntont to convey it Never in auche, for which I thank o--a certain timidity had , that ti since parted company And yet it see the pleasure of that child, scarce out of her teens, that some of the aardness I had escaped in earlier years, soo, ca to the other; I fingered the table by which I stood; I pulled at the hat I held; my colour came and went; I looked at her furtively fro towards th, unable longer to brook that disco silence-"Mademoiselle!" I called softly The sound of orate me, to strip me of my aardness and self-consciousness It broke the spell that for a ht me back to myself--to the vain, self-confident, flamboyant Bardelys that perhaps you have pictured fros

"I hope, , "that what you may have to say may justify in some measure your very i But now that I was ain so easily to be disconcerted My eyes rested upon her as she stood alht and supple she was, yet how dainty and slight withal! She was far froth of lih-bred poise of her shapely head, conveyed an illusion of height unless you stood beside her The illusion did not sway reat spirit, with a great soul that seemed to accentuate her physical helplessness That helplessness, which I felt rather than saove into the warp of rief at the arrest of her father, and at the dark fate that threatened hirief at the unworthiness of a lover Of the thich e, but I burned to gather her to me, to comfort and cherish her, toofof that pure, noble spirit, and thus sanctify my own