"My soul, my soul!" he said tenderly, his heart wrung with emotion. "What is it, sweetheart--why have you these tears? Oh! what have I done--darling, my own?"
"I am weary," she said, and fell to weeping softly, and refused to be comforted.
Paul's distress was intense--what could have happened? What terrible thing had he done? What sorrow had fallen upon his beloved while he selfishly slept? But all she would say was that she was weary, while she clung to him in a storm of passion, as if some one threatened to take her out of his arms. Then she left him abruptly and went off to dress.
But later, at dinner, it seemed as if a new and more radiant light than ever glowed on her face. She was gay and caressing, telling him merry tales of Paris and its plays. It was as if she meant to efface all suggestion of sorrow or pain--and gradually the impression wore off in Paul's mind, and ere it came to their sipping the golden wine, all was brightness and peace.
"See," she said, looking from the window just before they retired to rest, "the sky has stopped crying, and there are our stars, sweetheart, come out to wish us good-night. Ah! for us tomorrow once more will be a glorious day."
"My Queen," said Paul; "rain or fine, all days are glorious to me, so long as I have you to clasp in my arms. You are my sun, moon and stars--always, for ever."
She laughed a laugh, the silver echo of satisfaction and joy.
"Sweet Paul," she lisped mischievously, "so good you have been, so gentle with my moods. You must have some reward. Listen, beloved while I tell it to you."
But what she said is written in his heart!
His lady was so intensely _soignée_--that is what pleased Paul. He had never thought about such things, or noticed them much in other women, but she was a revelation.
No Roman Empress with her bath of asses' milk could have had a more wonderful toilet than she. And ever she was illusive, and he never quite got to the end of her mystery. Always there was a veil, when he least expected it, and so these hours for the most part were passed at the boiling-point of excitement and bliss. The experiences of another man's whole lifetime Paul was going through in the space of days.
It was the Monday following the wet Sunday when an incident happened which soon came back to him, and gave him food for reflection.