I shall obey her now, but tonight she
shall obey me, decide to make or mar me, one way or other! You may
read the letter, Amelie, if you will."
"I care not to read it, brother; I know Angelique too well not to
fear her influence over you. Her craft and boldness were always a
terror to her companions. But you will not leave Pierre's fete
tonight?" added she, half imploringly; for she felt keenly the
discourtesy to Pierre Philibert.
"I must do even that, sister! Were Angelique as faulty as she is
fair, I should only love her the more for her faults, and make them
my own. Were she to come to me like Herodias with the Baptist's
head in a charger, I should outdo Herod in keeping my pledge to
her."
Amelie uttered a low, moaning cry. "O my dear infatuated brother,
it is not in nature for a De Repentigny to love irrationally like
that! What maddening philtre have you drank, to intoxicate you
with a woman who uses you so imperiously? But you will not go, Le
Gardeur!" added she, clinging to his arm. "You are safe so long as
you are with your sister,--you will be safe no longer if you go to
the Maison des Meloises tonight!"
"Go I must and shall, Amelie! I have drank the maddening philtre,--
I know that, Amelie, and would not take an antidote if I had one!
The world has no antidote to cure me.
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