Desiree and Louis were left alone. He was looking at her, but she
was watching Barlasch with a still persistency.
"He said that it is the happy women who know their own minds," she
said slowly.
"I suppose he meant--Duty," she added at length, when Louis made no
sign of answering.
"Yes," he said.
Barlasch was beckoning to her. She moved away, but stopped a few
yards off, and looked at Louis again.
"Do you think it is any good trying?" she asked, with a short laugh.
"It is no good trying unless you mean to succeed," he answered
lightly. She laughed a second time and lingered, though Barlasch
was calling her to come.
"Oh," she said, "I am not afraid of you when you say things like
that. It is what you leave unsaid. I am afraid of you, I think,
because you expect so much."
She tried to see his face.
"I am only an ordinary human being, you know," she said warningly.
Then she followed Barlasch.
CHAPTER XVIII. MISSING.
I should fear those that dance before me now
Would one day stamp upon me; it has been done:
Men shut their doors against a setting sun.
During the first weeks of December the biting wind abated for a
time, and immediately the snow came. It fell for days, until at
length the grey sky seemed exhausted; for the flakes sailed
downwards in twos and threes like the stragglers of an army bringing
up the rear. Then the sun broke through again, and all the world
was a dazzling white.
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