What if the Intendant, suspecting
her complicity in the murder of Caroline, should refuse to marry
her? Were it not well in that desperate case to have Le Gardeur to
fall back upon?
Amelie watched nervously the changing countenance of Angelique. She
knew it was a beautiful mask covering impenetrable deceit, and that
no principle of right kept her from wrong when wrong was either
pleasant or profitable.
The conviction came upon Amelie like a flash of inspiration that she
was wrong in seeking to save Le Gardeur by seconding his wild offer
of marriage to Angelique. A union with this false and capricious
woman would only make his ruin more complete and his latter end
worse than the first. She would not urge it, she thought.
"Angelique," said she, "if you love Le Gardeur, you will not refuse
your help to rescue him from the Palace. You cannot wish to see him
degraded as a gentleman because he has been rejected by you as a
lover."
"Who says I wish to see him degraded as a gentleman? and I did not
reject him as a lover! not finally--that is, I did not wholly mean
it.
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