And that moment was compensation for all their past and future tears, whilst yonder, on the horizon before them, Paris still spread and rumbled, ever preparing the unknown future.
Just then Marie herself came in.

And the rest proved very simple.
Guillaume freed himself from his brother's clasp, led him forward and compelled him and Marie to take each other by the hand.

At first she made yet another gesture of refusal in her stubborn resolve that she would not take her promise back.

But what could she say face to face with those two tearful men, whom she had found in one another's arms, mingling together in such close brotherliness?
Did not those tears and that embrace sweep away all ordinary reasons, all such arguments as she held in reserve?
Even the embarrassment of the situation disappeared, it seemed as if she had already had a long explanation with Pierre, and that he and she were of one mind to accept that gift of love which Guillaume offered them with so much heroism.

A gust of the sublime passed through the room, and nothing could have appeared more natural to them than this extraordinary scene.