"The pain
which I give you now, may prevent much grief to you hereafter. Remember,
Victorine, that should these evil days pass by--should you ever again
be restored to peace and tranquil life, my earnest, my last, my solemn
prayer to you is, that my memory may not prevent your future marriage."
She was still kneeling by his side, and with her face upturned and her
hands clasped together, she now implored him to stop. She uttered no
dissent, she made no protestations; but she beseeched him, by their long
and tender love, by all the common ties which bound them together, to
cease to speak on a subject which was so agonising.
"I have done, love," he said; "and I know that you will not think
lightly of a prayer which I have made to you in so serious a manner."
De Lescure had expressed the same wish to his wife on former occasions,
which, however, had, of course, been less solemn; and then his wife had
answered him with a full, but not grieving heart. "Had our lot," he once
said, "been cast in an Indian village, the prejudices of the country
would have required you to submit to a horrid, torturing death upon my
tomb.
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