Mauprat
she repeatedly confirmed the celestial assurances of love which she had given in public, when she lifted up her voice to proclaim my innocence. A few reservations that had struck me in her evidence, and a recollection of the damning words that had fallen from her lips when Patience found her shot, continued, I must confess, to cause me pain for some time longer. I thought, rightly perhaps, that Edmée had made a great effort to believe in my innocence before Patience had given his evidence. But on this point she always spoke most unwillingly and with a certain amount of reserve. However, one day she quite healed my wound by saying with her charming abruptness:
"And if I loved you enough to absolve you in my own heart, and defend you in public at the cost of a lie, what would you say to that?"
A point on which I felt no less concern was to know how far I might believe in the love which she declared she had had for me from the very beginning of our acquaintance. Here she betrayed a little confusion, as if, in her invincible pride, she regretted having revealed a secret she had so jealously guarded. It was the abbé who undertook to confess for her. He assured me that at that time he had frequently scolded Edmée for her affection for "the young savage." As an objection to this, I told him of the conversation between Edmée and himself which I had overheard one evening in the park. This I repeated with that great accuracy of memory I possess. However, he replied:
"That very evening, if you had followed us a little farther under the trees, you might have overheard a dispute that would have completely reassured you, and have explained how, from being repugnant (I may almost
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