"Ah! it is to it that I am indebted for finding you. Nicette, don't leave me again, I implore you!" "Oh, no! I won't leave you again, monsieur, as you allow me to stay. But, I beg of you, be calm, don't talk any more, and take a little rest." I yielded to her entreaties; in truth, I did need to pull myself together. Nicette was with me, it was to her nursing that I owed my life! I had difficulty in realizing my happiness. Ah! how blissfully happy I was! and yet, some regret was mingled with my joy, when I thought that Raymond---- But if that were not true, I should be too happy. Every day my convalescence advanced a step; but I was not content unless Nicette was by my side; so she never left me. She seemed surprised by the feeling that I manifested for her; I saw in her eyes all the intoxicating joy that it caused her. It was plain, therefore, that she still loved me. Often I flattered myself that it was so, and then I abandoned myself to the affection that she aroused in me, I basked blissfully in the fire of her glances, I laid my head on her breast and inhaled her sweet breath. But when the image of Raymond appeared before me, all my happiness vanished, my heart swelled, and I moved away from Nicette. She noticed these abrupt transitions from joy to gloom, these sudden changes in my manner toward her. "Are you thinking of your wife?" she asked me one day, when I had moved away from her and sighed. "No," I said, gazing at her in distress; "I am thinking of Raymond." "Of Monsieur Raymond; and that makes you sigh?" "Can you wonder at it? Did he not rob me of the greatest of blessings?" "What do you mean? I don't understand you." "Ah! Nicette, you loved him, and yet you say that you don't understand me!" "I--love him! Great God! who told you that?" "I saw it; I know that he was your lover." "My lover! O heaven! then I am a most despicable creature in your eyes! And you believed that!" Tears suffocated her; she could say no more. I ran to her, threw my arms about her, and covered her with kisses; the mere suspicion that Raymond had lied to me was perfect bliss. "Nicette, dear Nicette, tell me how it all happened? I saw him in your shop; he held your hands--and you admitted it yourself."