"They told me that you were a prisoner. Is it true, then? Oh, how I have implored them to take me to you! How low I have stooped! I have even had to sit down to table with them and laugh at their jokes and wear jewels and pearl necklaces which he has forced upon me. All this in order to see you! . . . And they kept on promising. And then, at length, they brought me here last night and I thought that they had tricked me once more . . . or else that it was a fresh trap . . . or that they had at last made up their minds to kill me. . . . And now here you are, here you are, Paul, my own darling! . . ." She took his face in her two hands and, suddenly, in a voice of despair: "But you are not going just yet? You will stay till to-morrow, surely? They can't take you from me like that, after a few minutes? You're staying, are you not? Oh, Paul, all my courage is gone . . . don't leave me! . . ." She was greatly surprised to see him smile: "What's the matter? Why, my dearest, how happy you look!" He began to laugh and this time, drawing her to him with a masterful air that admitted of no denial, he kissed her hair and her forehead and her cheeks and her lips; and he said: "I am laughing because there is nothing to do but to laugh and kiss you. I am laughing also because I have been imagining so many silly things. Yes, just think, at that supper last night, I saw you from a distance . . . and I suffered agonies: I accused you of I don't know what. . . . Oh, what a fool I was!" She could not understand his gaiety; and she said again: "How happy you are! How can you be so happy?" "There is no reason why I should not be," said Paul, still laughing. "Come, look at things as they are: you and I are meeting after unheard-of misfortunes. We are together; nothing can separate us; and you wouldn't have me be glad?" "Do you mean to say that nothing can separate us?" she asked, in a voice quivering with anxiety. "Why, of course! Is that so strange?" "You are staying with me? Are we to live here?" "No, not that! What an idea! You're going to pack up your things at express speed and we shall be off." "Where to?" "Where to? To France, of course. When you think of it, that's the only country where one's really comfortable." And, when she stared at him in amazement, he said: "Come, let's hurry. The car's waiting; and I promised Bernard--yes, your brother Bernard--that we should be with him to-night. . . . Are you ready? But why that astounded look? Do you want to have things explained to you? But, my very dearest, it will take hours and hours to explain everything that's happened to yourself and me. You've turned the head of an imperial prince . . . and then you were shot . . . and then . . . and then . . . Oh, what does it all matter? Must I force you to come away with me?" All at once she understood that he was speaking seriously; and, without taking her eyes from him, she asked: "Is it true? Are we free?" "Absolutely free."