MADEMOISELLE DE MAUPIN _VOLUME TWO_ BY THÉOPHILE GAUTIER THE REALISTS PRINTED BY GEORGE BARRIE & SONS, PHILADELPHIA 1897 [Illustration: Chapter XII--_Her supple, yielding body shaped itself to mine like wax and took its whole exterior outline as exactly as possible:--water would not have found its way more scrupulously into every irregularity in the line.--Thus glued to my side, she produced the effect of the double stroke that painters give to the shadow side of their picture in laying on their color._] THIS EDITION OF MADEMOISELLE DE MAUPIN HAS BEEN COMPLETELY TRANSLATED BY I. G. BURNHAM THE ETCHINGS ARE BY FRANÇOIS-XAVIER LE SUEUR AND DRAWINGS BY ÉDOUARD TOUDOUZE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS MADEMOISELLE DE MAUPIN--VOLUME II IN THE RUSTIC CABIN Fronts. D'ALBERT WATCHES THÉODORE AT THE HOTEL DU LION-ROUGE BEFORE THE REHEARSAL AN EMBARRASSING SITUATION AT THE WINDOW OF THE CHATEAU THE DUEL ARRIVAL IN THE TOWN OF C---- D'ALBERT'S SURPRISE THE REALIZATION IX That is the fact.--I love a man, Silvio.--I tried for a long while to deceive myself; I gave a different name to the sentiment I felt, I clothed it in the guise of pure, disinterested friendship; I believed that it was nothing more than the admiration I have for all beautiful persons and all beautiful things; I walked for several days through the deceitful, laughing paths that wander about every new-born passion; but I realize now in what a deep and terrible slough I have become involved. There is no way of concealing the truth from myself longer; I have examined myself carefully, I have coolly considered all the circumstances; I have gone to the bottom of the most trivial details; I have searched every corner of my heart with the assurance due to the habit of studying one's self; I blush to think it and to write it; but the fact, alas! is only too certain.--I love this young man, not with the affection of a friend, but with love;--yes, with love. You, whom I have loved so dearly, Silvio, my dear, my only friend and companion, have never made me feel anything of the sort, and yet, if there ever was under heaven a close, warm friendship, if ever two hearts, although utterly different, understood each other perfectly, ours was that friendship and ours those two hearts. How many swiftly-flying hours have we passed together! what endless conversations, always too soon ended! how many things we have said to each other that no one ever said before!--We had, each in the other's heart, the window that Momus would have opened in man's side. How proud I was to be your friend, although younger than you--I so foolish, you so sensible!