She put her hands upon his head as if in benediction, then turned
them, holding them palm-forward to his lips, finally crooked her
fingers underneath his chin and raised his face. "Nay, love, sweet
love, art thou a worshipper and I a saint that thou should kneel to
me?" she asked him tenderly. "See, my lips are famishing for thine,
and wilt thou waste thy kisses on my hands and feet and garment? Make
haste, my heart, we have but little time, and I would know the kisses
of redemption ere----"
They clung together in the moonlight, her white-robed, lissome form
and his somberly-clad body seemed to melt and merge in one while her
hands reached up to clasp his cheeks and draw his face down to her
yearning, scarlet mouth.
De Grandin was reciting something in a mumbling monotone; his words
were scarcely audible, but I caught a phrase occasionally: "... rest
eternal grant to her, O Lord ... let light eternal shine upon her ...
from the gates of hell her soul deliver.... _Kyrie eleison_...."
"Julie!" we heard Ned's despairing cry, and:
"_Ha_, it comes, it has begun; it finishes!" de Grandin whispered
gratingly.
The girl had sunk down to the grass as though she swooned; one arm had
fallen limply from Ned's shoulder, but the other still was clasped
about his neck as we raced toward them. "_Adieu, mon amoureux; adieu
pour ce monde, adieu pour l'autre; adieu pour l'éternité!_" we heard
her sob. When we reached him, Ned knelt empty-armed before the tomb.
Of Julie there was neither sign nor trace.
"So, assist him, if you will, my friend," de Grandin bade, motioning
me to take Ned's elbow. "Help him to the gate. I follow quickly, but
first I have a task to do."
As I led Ned, staggering like a drunken man, toward the cemetery exit,
I heard the clang of metal striking metal at the tomb behind us.
* * * * *
"What did you stop behind to do?" I asked as we prepared for bed at
the hotel.
He flashed his quick, infectious smile at me, and tweaked his mustache
ends, for all the world like a self-satisfied tomcat furbishing his
whiskers after finishing a bowl of cream. "There was an alteration to
that epitaph I had to make. You recall it read, '_Ici repose
malheureusement_--here lies unhappily Julie d'Ayen'? That is no longer
true. I chiseled off the _malheureusement_. Thanks to Monsieur
Édouard's courage and my cleverness the old one's prophecy was
fulfilled tonight; and poor, small Julie has found rest at last.
Tomorrow morning they celebrate the first of a series of masses I have
arranged for her at the Cathedral."
"What was that drink you gave Ned just before he left us?" I asked
curiously. "It smelled like----"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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