"Oh! no, not that. I wish I could marry Albert without loving him; I have tried, but I cannot go on to the end, I cannot!" "You really love the Duke?" "Father, for a whole year I have struggled against that love." "Why have you never told me?" "Because I saw nothing in the Duke's attentions except the agitation they caused me; and I was too ashamed to speak of it to you. I thought, considering the position of the Duke, that I was an aspiring fool. He overheard me talking to Genevieve. When he appeared before us, I so little expected to see him there at such an hour--six o'clock in the morning, in the grove--that my heart could not bear the shock, and I fainted. From that instant I understood how much I loved him. I had no idea before of the power of love, but now I feel it the master of my life. I will sacrifice that to your will, father; but I will not sacrifice the immense happiness of loving. Even if the Duke did not love me, I should still be uplifted by my own love." She sat down beside her father. "Who knows what unhappiness may not be lurking for me, ready to spring at any moment?" She drew near him shivering. François took her charming head in his hands. He looked at her tenderly, but with an expression almost of terror in his face. "Alas! all happiness built upon the unhappiness of others always risks disillusionment--and collapse." "Dear father, my life has been bathed in such sunlight for the last three days, that I shall keep that glow of warmth for the rest of my life." "I only ask, you little daughter, to do nothing, to say nothing, before the end of this fête. We have no right, however grave our personal troubles and responsibilities are, to betray the hospitality of the Duchess. To-morrow, after the fête, I will talk to Albert. Go, my darling, go back to that poor boy. I hate to send you to practice a dissimulation that I abhor, but we are in a situation of such delicacy and difficulty.... God keep you!" He kissed her tenderly. She went back to her fiancé, to find to her surprise that the Countess de Morgueil had just passed by with him. Maurice pointed them out where they were walking slowly in the distance. "Oh! so much the better," said Esperance. "That gives me an excuse to go to my room." Maurice urged her to wait. "I am convinced that that woman is meddling in our affairs. It is plain enough that we have upset her." "How? What do you mean, cousin?" "Did you not know that the Countess is madly in love with the Duke, and that she had hoped to marry him this winter?" "Poor woman," sighed Esperance, sincerely. The Duke came by, and seeing them alone, he joined them. "The three of you alone?" he cried. "Then you will allow me to join you for a moment?" "Look," said Maurice, indicating Albert and the Countess de Morgueil. "There is a dangerous woman who is making mischief at this moment!... And, nevertheless, I owe her the happiness this moment brings me."