"
When he had at last disappeared long silence fell amid the infinite
distress which his short stay had brought there. Norine had again sunk
upon a chair, as if overwhelmed by this catastrophe. Cecile had been
obliged to sit down in front of her, for she also was overcome. And it
was she who, amid the mournfulness of that room, which but a little while
ago had held all their happiness, spoke out the first to complain and
express her astonishment.
"But you did not ask him anything; we know nothing about him," said she.
"Where has he come from? What is he doing? What does he want? And, in
particular, how did he manage to discover you? These were the interesting
things to learn."
"Oh! what would you have!" replied Norine. "When he told me his name he
knocked all the strength out of me; I felt as cold as ice! Oh! it's he,
there's no doubt of it. You recognized his likeness to his father, didn't
you? But you are right; we know nothing, and now we shall always be
living with that threat over our heads, in fear that everything will
crumble down upon us."
All her strength, all her courage was gone, and she began to sob,
stammering indistinctly: "To think of it! a big fellow of eighteen
falling on one like that without a word of warning! And it's quite true
that I don't love him, since I don't even know him.
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