336 LOUISE DE LA VALLIERB. thin, so melancholy. A very few words, and a simple gesture which De Guiche made to put aside Raours arm, were sufficient to inform the latter of the truth. •'*Ah! so it is," said Raoul, seating himself beside his friend, "one loves and dies." "No, no, not dies," replied De Guiche, smiling, "since I am now recovering, and since, too, I can press you in my arms." "Ah! I understand." "And I understand you, too. You fancy I am unhappy, Raoul?" "Alas!" "No; I am the happiest of men. My body suffers, but not my mind or my heart. If you only knew — Oh! I am, indeed, the very happiest of men." "So much the better," said Raoul; "so much the better, provided it lasts." "It is over. I have had enough happiness to last me to my dying day, Raoul." "I have no doubt you have had; but she " "Listen; I love her, because — but you are not listening to me." "I beg your pardon." "Your mind is preoccupied." "Yes; your health, in the first place " "It is not that, I know." "My dear friend, you would be wrong, I think, to ask me any questions — you, of all persons in the world;" and he laid so much weight upon the "you," that he completely enlightened his friend upon the nature of the evil, and the difficulty of remedying it. "You say that, Raoul, on account of what I wrote to you." "Certainly. We will talk over that matter a little, when you shall have finished telling me of all your own pleasures and pains." "My dear friend, I am entirely at your service now." "Thank you; I have hurried, I have flown here; I came in half the time the government couriers usually take. Now tell me, my dear friend, what did you want?" "Nothing whatever, but to make you come." "Well, then, I am here." "All is quite right, then." "There must have beea something else, I suppose?" "No, indeed."
