She was, moreover, struck to the heart by the words of Heloise
regarding the eagerness of her brother to get word of Angelique.
"The Chevalier de Pean might have brought a message, perhaps a love-
token from Angelique to Le Gardeur to draw him back to the city,"
thought she. If so, she felt instinctively that all their efforts
to redeem him would be in vain, and that neither sister's love nor
Pierre's remonstrances would avail to prevent his return. He was
the slave of the lamp and Angelique its possessor.
"Heaven forbid, Heloise!" she said faintly; "Le Gardeur is lost if
he return to the city now! Twice lost--lost as a gentleman, lost as
the lover of a woman who cares for him only as a pastime and as a
foil to her ambitious designs upon the Intendant! Poor Le Gardeur!
what happiness might not be his in the love of a woman noble-minded
as himself! What happiness were he yours, O darling Heloise!" She
kissed her pallid cheeks, wet with tears, which lay by hers on the
same pillow, and both remained silently brooding over the thoughts
which spring from love and sorrow.
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