Isaure timidly cast down her eyes, and withdrew her hand from Edouard's, faltering:
"So it is true! You do love me? He did not deceive me?"
"That poor man--you know, that stranger who is wandering about our mountains."
"Yes, the day before yesterday, after you had gone, he came into my house. I asked him to rest, and he remained quite a long time. He kept his eyes fixed on me all the time, and with such a strange expression! Ah! it was not like you! For, instead of giving me pleasure, it frightened me."
"No! oh, no! he simply said to me--what you yourself have just said--that it was love which brought you to me; and then he asked me which of you I preferred."
"Who has authorized him to question you concerning your most secret feelings? Ah! when I meet him again, I will chastise his insolence!"
"Oh! do not be angry with him, I beg you; the man is unfortunate; he says that all the world has deserted him! You must not make him any unhappier. No doubt he questioned me for his own amusement, but he did not insist when he saw that I did not like it. You will not say anything to him, will you?"
"How kind-hearted you are! But you are right, we must forget that man. Ah, dear Isaure, you will answer me; you will let me read your heart?"
The girl blushed; she did not know how to express what she felt. Edouard approached her, gently put his arm about her waist and said to her tenderly:
"If Alfred should not come to see you again, would you be very much disappointed?"
"Why, I should think of him sometimes,--we would talk together about him; that is all."
"And suppose it were I who did not come again--would you console yourself in the same way by talking with him?"
"Oh! never, never!" cried the girl, in a tone that came from her heart.
"Dear Isaure! then it is I whom you love with love!"
Isaure softly raised her beautiful blue eyes to Edouard's face; her expression, in which her whole soul was depicted, left no possible doubt in his mind who was master of her heart. In his intoxication, Edouard embraced her and imprinted a kiss on her lips. Instantly they heard a mocking laugh behind them.
The lovers turned their heads, but they saw no one.
"Didn't you hear something?" asked Isaure anxiously.