Although  in  Heine's  equable,  well-balanced  nature  reli-
gion had  never  gone  to  extremes,  who  could  tell  if  she  had
not,  in  the  fervour  of  her  fifteenth  year,  made  some  vow
which  she  had  suddenly  remembered. But  no. She
would  not  have  had  that  evident  terror  as  to  confessing
such  a  motive. Charles  continued  to  look  at  her,  and
the  same  frightful  suspicion  which  had  presented  itself
before  and  been  repulsed,  besieged  him  anew:  "What
if  she  loves  another  ?  "     It  was  an  insane  suspicion,  for


OTHER   people's   LUXURY  209

she  had  just  told  him  the  contrary,  and  everything
proved  her  veracity,  —  words,  voice,  and  look ;  an  out-
rageous suspicion,  too,  for  if  Reine  loved  another  man,
her  attitude  toward  her  cousin,  the  other  evening  at  the
ball,  and  now,  was  the  vilest  of  coquetry ;  and  when  had
she  given  him  the  right  to  believe  her  even  capable  of
a  wrong  feeling  ?  Alas !  Insane  and  outrageous  ideas
are  exactly  those  that  jealousy  awakens  in  us  the  most
instinctively,  and  its  fatal  intoxication  prevents  us  from
recognizing  either  their  madness  or  their  injustice. Let
this  be  the  excuse  of  Charles  Huguenin  for  having,
though  but  for  an  hour,  been  unjust  toward  the  adorable
child  who  walked  at  his  side  along  the  terrace  on  the
water's  edge. The  frosty  gravel  creaked  under  their
feet ;  the  whistle  from  the  tug-boats  came  to  them  over
the  banks  of  the  Seine,  very  near  and  green  between
its  quays  of  stone ;  and  these  sounds  appeared  not  more
foreign  to  himself  than  did  the  sound  of  the  words  that
his  own  lips  now  uttered. Was  it  really  he  who  was
speaking  thus,  and  to  Reine,  to  his  dear  Reine,  sur-
rounded till  that  moment  by  a  love  respectful  as  a  cult,
idolatrous  as  devotion?

"Very  well,"  he  had  begun,  "I  shall  respect  your
wish. I  shall  not  seek  to  know  the  motive  that
causes  you  to  break  my  heart. There  is,  however,
one  question  that  I  have  a  right  to  ask  you,  and  to
which  you  owe  me  a  reply. Tell  me  that  you  do  not
recall  your  promise    because   you   wish    to   marry   an-


210  OTHER   people's   LUXURY

other  man. Tell  me  this,  and  I  will  submit. I
shall  leave  Paris  to-night,  and  you  will  never  hear  of
me  again. But  tell  me. 