I stretched out my
hand instinctively to give her help, but she shrank from me.
'No!' she gasped, between her sobs. 'Do not touch me. There is
too much between us.'
'Yet there must be one thing more between us,' I answered firmly.
'You must listen to me a little longer whether you will or no,
Mademoiselle: for the love you bear to your brother. There is
one course still open to me by which I may redeem my honour; and
it has been in my mind for some time back to take that course.
'To-day, I am thankful to say, I can take it cheerfully, if not
without regret; with a steadfast heart, if no light one.
Mademoiselle,' I continued earnestly, feeling none of the
triumph, none of the vanity, none of the elation I had foreseen,
but only simple joy in the joy I could give her, 'I thank God
that it IS still in my power to undo what I have done: that it
is still in my power to go back to him who sent me, and telling
him that I have changed my mind, and will bear my own burdens, to
pay the penalty.'
We were within a hundred paces of the top and the finger-post.
She cried out wildly that she did not understand.
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