"
This sentence, then, had no positive signification. But why add:
"Or rather, return before breakfast."
This was what betrayed fear, that is, the fault. To go away and
return again anon, was to be cautious, to avoid suspicion. Then,
why "he," instead of, "Clement?" This word was striking. "He"--
that is, the dear one, or else, the master that one hates. There
is no medium--'tis the husband, or the lover. "He," is never an
indifferent person. A husband is lost when his wife, in speaking
of him, says, "He."
But when had Bertha written these few lines? Doubtless some evening
after they had retired to their room. He had said to her, "I'm
going to-morrow to Melun," and then she had hastily scratched off
this note and given it, in a book, to Hector.
Alas! the edifice of his happiness, which had seemed to him strong
enough to defy every tempest of life, had crumbled, and he stood
there lost in the midst of its debris. No more happiness, joys,
hopes--nothing! All his plans for the future rested on Bertha; her
name was mingled in his every dream, she was at once the future and
the dream. He had so loved her that she had become something of
himself, that he could not imagine himself without her.
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