The real cause of her refusal is more serious and more mortifying." "You know it, then ?" exclaimed Julien, eagerly.
"I know it, because I forced Reine to confess it." "And the reason is ?" "That she does not love me." "Reine--does not love you!" Again a gleam of light irradiated the young man's large, blue eyes.
Claudet was leaning against the table, in front of his cousin; he continued slowly, looking him steadily in the face: "That is not all.

Not only does Reine not love me, but she loves some one else." Julien changed color; the blood coursed over his cheeks, his forehead, his ears; he drooped his head.
"Did she tell you so ?" he murmured, at last, feebly.
"She did not, but I guessed it.

Her heart is won, and I think I know by whom." Claudet had uttered these last words slowly and with a painful effort, at the same time studying Julien's countenance with renewed inquiry.

The latter became more and more troubled, and his physiognomy expressed both anxiety and embarrassment.
"Whom do you suspect ?" he stammered.
"Oh!" replied Claudet, employing a simple artifice to sound the obscure depth of his cousin's heart, "it is useless to name the person; you do not know him." "A stranger ?" Julien's countenance had again changed.

His hands were twitching nervously, his lips compressed, and his dilated pupils were blazing with anger, instead of triumph, as before.
"Yes; a stranger, a clerk in the iron-works at Grancey, I think." "You think!--you think!" cried Julien, fiercely, "why don't you have more definite information before you accuse Mademoiselle Vincart of such treachery ?" He resumed pacing the hall, while his interlocutor, motionless, remained silent, and kept his eyes steadily upon him.
"It is not possible," resumed Julien, "Reine can not have played us such a trick! When I spoke to her for you, it was so easy to say she was already betrothed!" "Perhaps," objected Claudet, shaking his head, "she had reasons for not letting you know all that was in her mind." "What reasons ?" "She doubtless believed at that time that the man she preferred did not care for her.