You have given your
love to another, and discarded me! Is it not so?"
"I have neither discarded you, nor loved another," Angelique
equivocated. She played her soul away at this moment with the
mental reservation that she had not yet done what she had resolved
to do upon the first opportunity--accept the hand of the Intendant
Bigot.
"It is well for that other man, if there be one!" Le Gardeur rose
and walked angrily across the room two or three times. Angelique
was playing a game of chess with Satan for her soul, and felt that
she was losing it.
"There was a Sphinx in olden times," said he, "that propounded a
riddle, and he who failed to solve it had to die. Your riddle will
be the death of me, for I cannot solve it, Angelique!"
"Do not try to solve it, dear Le Gardeur! Remember that when her
riddle was solved the Sphinx threw herself into the sea. I doubt
that may be my fate! But you are still my friend, Le Gardeur!"
added she, seating herself again by his side, in her old fond,
coquettish manner. "See these flowers of Amelie's, which I did not
place in my hair; I treasure them in my bosom!" She gathered them
up as she spoke, kissed them, and placed them in her bosom.
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