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Updated: May 24, 2025
The blood mounted to her face, and exquisitely coloured her cheeks, as she heard again the sweet, yet appalling words, "I love you"; and she reasoned no longer, but sobbed again, doubting evident facts, fearing the commission of a fault in the beyond in that which had neither name nor form. But that which especially distressed her now was that she had not made a confidante of Hubertine.
Two chairs being unoccupied, Angelique stood upon one of them. "Get down, my dear," whispered Hubertine, "for that is forbidden." But she tranquilly remained there, and did not move. "Why is it forbidden? I must see, at all events. Oh! how exquisite all this is!" At last she prevailed upon her mother to get upon the other chair. Now the whole Cathedral was glowing with a reddish yellow light.
At length she seized the hand of Hubertine, pressed it to her lips most caressingly, and kissed it passionately. The Huberts were deeply touched, and could scarcely speak. They stammered: "Dear, dear child!" She was not, then, in reality bad! Perhaps with affectionate care she could be corrected of this violence of temper which had so alarmed them.
Nothing appeared to be changed outwardly; she kept strictly her promise, shut herself up, and made no attempt whatever to see Felicien. This did not seem to depress her at all, but she kept her bright, youthful look, smiling sweetly at Hubertine when occasionally she saw her eyes fixed upon her as if astonished. However, in this enforced silence she thought only of him; he was always in her mind.
And the cloistral calm of all Beaumont-l'Eglise of the Rue Magloire, back of the Bishop's Palace, of the Grande Rue, where the Rue de Orfevres began, and of the Place du Cloitre, where rose up the two towers, was felt in the drowsy air, and seemed to fall gently with the pale daylight on the deserted pavement. Hubertine had taken upon herself the charge of the education of Angelique.
Hubertine, having gone once more to the cemetery, saddened by the thought of their loneliness, and the little house, which would seem so empty after the departure of the dearly-beloved child, had prayed to her mother for a long time; when suddenly she felt within her an inexplicable relief and gladness, which convinced her that at last her petition had been granted.
"My child," concluded Hubertine, "you can easily understand that you must no longer think of this young man, for you certainly would not wish to act in opposition to the wishes of Monseigneur. I knew that beforehand, but I preferred that the facts should speak for themselves, and that no obstacle should appear to come from me."
For five years Angelique lived and grew there, as if in a cloister, far away from the world. She only went out to attend the seven-o'clock Mass on Sunday mornings, as Hubertine had obtained permission for her to study at home, fearing that, if sent to school, she might not always have the best of associates. This old dwelling, so shut in, with its garden of a dead quiet, was her world.
But, alas! at the end of a year Pauline had a son and died." Hubert, who was still occupied with marking out his pattern, raised his head, showing a very pale face as he said in a low voice: "Oh! the unhappy man!" "It was said that he himself almost died from his great grief," continued Hubertine. "At all events, a fortnight later he entered into Holy Orders, and soon became a priest.
In her dreams, as in her waking hours, her mind was filled with it. It was a companion shadow to her own. She had thus a double being, although she was alone with her fancies. This secret she confided to no one, not even to Hubertine, to whom, until now, she had always told even her thoughts.
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