The Capture

Martha, the old servant, awakened me. She said, "Your uncle ia dying!" I went down stairs and again found myself before the half open door, where for the past two days I had been watching the agony of my uncle. He had brought me up and had been the kindest of guardians. He had banished me from his presence. He had coininanded that I should not be admitted to the chatean. He had done all 'this without motive, without ony offense on my part% but simply because he had disinherited me for her! Her? I see her moving about in the dying man's room, a few steps from me. Theie she reigns as asovereign. She devotes herself to the patiënt. She obeys each request of the doctor, who, vfttb her, watches by my uncle's bedside. I watch her every movement, and a wild hatred, mixed with agony and huiuiiiation, burns in my veins. On my return from Germany I found her living at my uncle's, and he taid to me: "She is my old friend Senarfs danghter. He died ruined- poor old fellow! I hope that you wiü not object to my giving her a small dowry. You will still be a millionaire!" She was very beautiful, but proud and haughty. She received me coldly and in a very ungracious manner, but in spite of that I feil promptly in love with her. Her step made me tremble, and her fine nrofile charrned me. At the end of a month I would have given heaven and earth for her love. I dared to teil her so - to ask her to raarry me - but she refused me without hesitatioa. "Never!" she declared positively. Ah, that "never!" It broke my heart, but I answered her calinly: "You tnight have told meso more gently." "It would have been less efficacious," slie returned calmly. And I admired the barbarie frankness of her answer, like th ■ sentimental fool that I was. Today I know what the girl with the daik eyes was hiding! I now understand her silence, her cold reception, her insulting rejection. It was because she was sure of her position. Already she knew that she should rob me of my fortune. And to think that during the pást two days I have not'told her how I despise her! To think that I was satisfied to avoid her, not to talk to her! How she mnst laugh at my folly! As this thought entera my mind I am about to enter the room. But the words of the doctor still sound in my ears: "Do you wish to kill the patiënt? It can be done in a minute. A sudden emotion, a surprise, and he goes!" Thus even nature is in favor of the spoiler! Again I look at her. She ia leaning over the bed with the expression of a madonna! Suddenly the old man moves and moans like a littlo child. My heart ia filled with pity for him. Then he calis. "Laure!" The doctor moves quickly. I hear a confused whispering, then acry: "I am suffocating! Ah - I" A dead silence - then a rattling in the throat - and again silence. Then the doctor leans over the bed, listens, and finally says in a low voice: "He is dead." Laure hides her face in her hands. I approach. I would like to accuse her, but a puerile sense of respect keeps me eilent, and it is she who speaks first. "1 would like to say something to you." Her eyes are filled with tears, but her voice is resolute. It seems as if sho ware defying me. However, I consent and lead her inte the next room. There we remaiu looking at each other for a minute without1 speaking. It is she who continúes: "You will excuse me for not havina sent for you sooner, but your unele refused absolutely to see you, and considering bis condition I had only to obey. That was at least the opinión of the doe tor. Beheve me, I g.m sorry." "I should think so!" I exclaim, with au insulting laugh. She looked me full in the face, hei eyes flashed, and she stopped crying. "You will regret that laugh," she said haughtüy. "It is cowardly. Your duty as a gentleman is first to listen to me." I was struck with her attitude, althoiigh I believed it to be only anothei form of dnplicity, and I replied gravely: "Be it so. I will listen to you." She continued then vehemently. "I know that you believe that I influenced your uncle. I know that you believe me responsible for bis change oi mind toward yon and guilty of having captured his estáte. I know that yo:. believe me avaricious, a liar, a plotter.' However, I am none of these things." "Ah! then you are not his heiress?" 1 asked, with bitter irony. "Yes! I am his heiress! But I did nothing that the most scrupulous delicacy could object to! I often begged your uncle to send for you, and I only ceased when the doctor assured me that my constant demanda worried the patiënt. Your uncle was rny benefactor. He eaved me from misery, and I could not do anything which would prove me tmgrateful. When he was atacked with the stranga whim of preferring me to you. 1 vías obli rñit. As he was tbrn too i! to be oj . ' íl" "But you inherit t !" 1 roppated, witb the name ;' oij' iroriy. "I inherit it- w She gazed fixedly i ■■■. "If yon were iii mj : ' . whatwonld you think?" I excUtiux "Just what yon v.-iU thinlr," and she drew a smaU packot from her pocket and handed it to tne, saying, "Forgive the olcl man and desfcroy this proof of his delirium." I was too much astonished to speak. My hands trembled. Conf usedly 1 realized how wrong I had been in blaming her. "What do yon mean?" I finally stammered. "That is the will. I give it to you, and you remain the heir of yonr uuhappy únele." I was so overeóme by iier answer that I was obliged to lean ugainst the wall for support - so ashamed that I could not look her in the face - her whoin I had so basely accused. After a few minutes I collected myself and begged in a supplicating voice: "Forgive me! Take back this packet! I would rather die than accept the estate on such conditions." "And U'S she exclaimed vehemently and disdainfully. "Do you think tbat I will touch it? Do you think that I would defile myself by stealing?" "I have misunderstood yon," I exclaimed. "I have acted like a brute. I am a miserable fooi." "It does uot matter now. We shall probablj' never see each other again." She spoke gehtly in an absent manner. Her beautiful eyes had a faraway look, and now I knew that she was really pure, innocent, staiuless. "Ah!" I murmured. "Of what use is the money to me! To receive it thus from your hands is the hardest of punishments. I will not have it! To receive it from you who refused me so coldly, from you who despise me with such humiliating gentleness! I should consider myself disgraced for life!" "What do you say? Disgraced because I return to you what belongs to you? Because I refuse to profit by the unreasonable whim of an invalid?" She retreated a few steps, and her admirable beauty filled my heart with adoration. "Ah! why would you not accept my love?" I cried. "Why would j'ou let me have no part in your life!" "I was a poor girl, treated with kindness and trusted. I should have betrayed that kindness and trust in listening to j'ou." "Would you have listened to me then if you had been rich?" I exclaimed. She cast dswn her eyes and remained a minute undecided. Then lifting her long eyelashes she said simply: "I think so!" My excitement increased, words failed me, and I could only stammer: "But now - yon can" She motioned me to be silent. After a few minutes of deep thought she said: "Todaj' I think that I have the right to listen to yon. My ref usal or acceptance depends now only npon myown inclina tion." I approached and implored her: "Accept iny life or refuse it!" "I will not refuse," she answered gently. And suddenly smiling sweetly she said, with subtle feminine irony: "I would never have refused it, for if you feil quickly in love with me I, too, was not slow in loving you." I.caught Laure's hands and kissed them humbly, but she gently drew them away and begged me to remember the presence of the dead, which, to teil the truth, I had almost forgotten.