As to the feelings that this reply, in which the noble heart of poor
La Briere beat beneath the brilliant phantom of Canalis, excited in
Modeste, they were as multifarious and confused as the waves which
rushed to die along the shore while with her eyes fixed on the wide
ocean she gave herself up to the joy of having (if we dare say so)
harpooned an angelic soul in the Parisian Gulf, of having divined that
hearts of price might still be found in harmony with genius, and,
above all, for having followed the magic voice of intuition.
A vast interest was now about to animate her life. The wires of her
cage were broken: the bolts and bars of the pretty Chalet--where were
they? Her thoughts took wings.
"Oh, father!" she cried, looking out to the horizon. "Come back and
make us rich and happy."
The answer which Ernest de La Briere received some five days later
will tell the reader more than any elaborate disquisition of ours.
CHAPTER IX
THE POWER OF THE UNSEEN
To Monsieur de Canalis:
My friend,--Suffer me to give you that name,--you have delighted
me; I would not have you other than you are in this letter, the
first--oh, may it not be the last! Who but a poet could have
excused and understood a young girl so delicately?
I wish to speak with the sincerity that dictated the first lines
of your letter.
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