"And, during the six months you have passed in Lorraine, no doubt the constant enjoyment of each other's society has been far more congenial to your mutual tastes than your mode of life in Paris." "Yes, father." "And you still rejoice in being his wife?" "I do, indeed. But, dearest father, why these questions?" "Brévannes, in fact, is precisely what you thought him when you assured me that you would wed none other than he?" "Assuredly he is," answered Bertha, more and more surprised at the close questioning pursued by her father, but which will sufficiently shew how scrupulously she had concealed her unhappiness from her father. "You find him worthy of inspiring such a passion as that which you assured me would cause your death, unhappy child, if I still refused my assent to your union?" "Indeed, father, Charles has not changed since then." "Heaven be praised! then I confess, I am deceived." "Deceived, dear father! and in what respect?" "Can you guess wherefore this year I have awaited your return to Paris with so much more impatience than in previous years?" "No, dear father, indeed I cannot." "And you know not either, why my joy at welcoming you to-day exceeds that I have hitherto experienced?" "Father, I beseech you, explain to me the purport of all these strange inquiries; you know not how they pain me--but, gracious Heaven, you weep--father, dearest father, what mean these tears?" "Can you not guess? can you not perceive that they flow from joy--oh, yes, heartfelt, overwhelming joy." "Oh, so much the better." "My child, the trial has been a severe one." "What trial do you speak of?" "It cost me so much, old and infirm as I am, to pass my days alone; I, who from the hour of your birth had never passed a morning or evening without embracing you,--you who absorbed the love that was once shared between you and your mother, think what a painful thing it must be for me only to see you for a few hours each week, and to lose sight of you for months together." "Dearest father, be assured that I suffered equally with yourself." "That is not all; the time you passed here, while your husband was in Italy, rendered our separation still more painful; it was like losing you a second time." "But, my dear father----" "I know what you are going to say--when you were first married, Brévannes offered me a small suite of rooms in his house, and you yourself subsequently reiterated the proposition, which I, however, constantly refused to accept." "Alas, yes!"