Belle Rose: A Romance of the Cloak and Sword — page 250: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

234 A WHITE NIGHT. wounded his pride as minister; the wound is incurable. You know what day you have entered this convent; do you know what day you will leave it? Are you quite sure that Belle-Rose will ever return? Between you there is the sea and the minister’s anger, madame! Do you wish to make of this cloister your tomb? First leave, marry me, and you can live afterward as you chose. If I dis- please you too much, our gracious monarch will furnish me the occasion to get killed in his service. At any rate you will be free and out of these stifling walls.’’ Madame d’Albergotti saw that Monsieur de Pomereux spoke seriously this time. She extended her hand to the young man, who kissed it respectfully. ‘Thanks, monsieur,’’ she said to him; ‘‘you have a kind heart. In repulsing you it is not Monsieur de Pomereux whom I repulse; itis marriage with another than Belle- Rose. I have plighted my faith to him; let him die or live, I shall keep it. Ido not hide from myself the perils to which the rancor of Monsieur de Louvois exposes me. These perils will not be stronger than my resignation. You have understood me, monsieur; let this be final be- tween us.’’ Monsieur de Pomereux bowed. What he had still to say strangled him; he wished to conquer his emotion and could not. He leaned over Suzanne’s hand and kissed it again with a respect which was not habitual with him. ‘You are a noble creature,’’ said he. Monsieur de Pomereux called for the superior; she came, and he asked her to communicate to Madame d’ Albergotti the news of which he was the bearer; after which he went out in all haste. As he was traversing the inner court, he heard a heart-rending cry. His heart leaped in his breast. ‘‘My God!’ he murmured, ‘I believe that if thirty women had not shared my affections, I would finish by loving this one.”’ CHAPTER XXXIV. A WHITE NIGHT. The cry which Monsieur de Pomereux had heard was indeed the cry of Suzanne when she had learned the sup- posed death of Belle-Rose. Mother Evangélique had coldly announced it to her, and Suzanne, overwhelmed by this blow, had fallen upon the carpet. The superior called two comicbooks Ee. . vee