I warn you that this answer will not be what you wish;
for, as I told you, the future is not yet mine. But should I not
indeed be mad and foolish to say yes without having seen you? When
I have seen you I can say no without wounding you; I can make sure
that you shall not see me.
This letter had been sent off the evening before the day when the
abortive struggle between Dumay and Modeste had taken place. The happy
girl was impatiently awaiting Sunday, when her eyes were to vindicate
or condemn her heart and her actions,--a solemn moment in the life of
any woman, and which three months of close communion of souls now
rendered as romantic as the most imaginative maiden could have wished.
Every one, except the mother, had taken this torpor of expectation for
the calm of innocence. No matter how firmly family laws and religious
precepts may bind, there will always be the Clarissas and the Julies,
whose souls like flowing cups o'erlap the brim under some spiritual
pressure. Modeste was glorious in the savage energy with which she
repressed her exuberant youthful happiness and remained demurely
quiet.
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