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Updated: June 13, 2025
He put into her hand the ring she had seen in the little bon-bon box; a ring of his mother's that he had saved when he had parted with all else, and had put off his hand and into the box of Petite Reine's gift the day he entered the Algerian army. Cigarette flushed scarlet with passions he could not understand, and she could not have disentangled. "The ring of your mistress!
As they floated slowly downward they heard a sharp explosion overhead. He smiled wryly at Astrid, dropping beside him. "Your change of heart," he said, "didn't come any too soon." Reine's laboratory, like a great deal else in the Allied Systems, had gone underground as galactic war approached. Far beneath the surface, the grav-well ended in a corridor, stretching out a hundred meters.
All this forest vegetation, mingling its black or purple tints with the dark, moist leaves, brought out the whiteness of the young girl's complexion, her limpid eyes, and her brown curls escaping from her hood. Julien de Buxieres and his companion had turned at the sound of Reine's voice. As soon as she perceived them, she went briskly toward them, exclaiming: "What are you doing here?
On first hearing that the marriage was broken off, his heart had leaped for joy, and hope had revived within him; but the subsequent information that Mademoiselle Vincart was probably interested in some lover, as yet unknown, had grievously sobered him. He was indignant at Reine's duplicity, and Claudet's cowardly resignation.
He felt more at ease among them than among the notables of the borough, and he did not regret having accepted Claudet's invitation. "I am glad I came," murmured he in Reine's ear, "and I never have eaten with so much enjoyment!" "Ah! I am glad of it," replied the young girl, gayly, "perhaps now you will begin to like our woods."
Under these conditions it is not to be supposed he was in a mood to relate any of the details of such meagre lovemaking. His self-love was wounded by Reine's coldness. Having always been "cock-of-the-walk," he could not understand why he had such poor success with the only one about whom he was in earnest. He kept quiet, therefore, hiding his anxiety under the mask of careless indifference.
But there was a certain degree of restraint observed by these country folk. Was it owing to Reine's presence?
Reine's dark eyes filled with tears. "What a misfortune!" she exclaimed, "and who could have expected such a thing? Oh! my poor Claudet!" She was so moved, and spoke with such sincere compassion, that Claudet was perhaps misled, and thought he read in her glistening eyes a tenderer sentiment than pity; he trembled, took her hand, and held it long in his. "Thank you, Reine!
Hetty had fascinating fancies of her own about an ideal mother; no real mother she had known had ever reached her standard. But Reine's mother must surely have been up to the mark. And to be told that she, Hetty, was like her! She drew nearer to Reine, who put her arms round her neck and kissed her. "I can't tell you how I feel," said Reine, holding her off and looking at her.
Now that, he could better understand the young girl's adoration of the marvellous forest world, he sought out, with loving interest, the sites where she had gone into ecstasy, the details of the landscape which she had pointed out to him the year before, and had made him admire. The beauty of the scene was associated in his thoughts with Reine's love, and he could not think of either separately.
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