Or retract the vows you plighted, receive again the heart
and name you gave me, and live unvexed by the stormy nature time alone
can tame. Here is the ring. Shall I restore or keep it, Manuel?"
Never had she looked more beautiful as she stood there, an image of
will, daring, defiant, and indomitable, with eyes darkened by intensity
of emotion, voice half sad, half stern, and outstretched hand on which
the wedding ring no longer shone. She felt her power, yet was wary
enough to assure it by one bold appeal to the strongest element of her
husband's character: passions, not principles, were the allies she
desired, and before the answer came she knew that she had gained them at
the cost of innocence and self-respect.
As Manuel listened, an expression like a dark reflection of her own
settled on his face; a year of youth seemed to drop away; and with the
air of one who puts fear behind him, he took the hand, replaced the
ring, resolutely accepted the hard conditions, and gave all to love,
only saying as he had said before, "Soul and body, I belong to you; do
with me as you will."
A fortnight later Pauline sat alone, waiting for her husband. Under the
pretext of visiting a friend, she had absented herself a week, that
Manuel might give himself entirely to the distasteful task she set him.
He submitted to the separation, wrote daily, but sent no tidings of his
progress, told her nothing when they met that night, and had left her an
hour before asking her to have patience till he could show his finished
work.
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