Yet only for that one weak, thoughtless instant did she yield to what appeared real joy at my presence.
"Yes, dear friend, it is Eloise," she answered, gazing anxiously into my face, and clinging to my strong hands as though fearful lest I might tear them away when she spoke those hard words which must follow.

"Yet surely you know, Geoffrey Benteen, that I am Mademoiselle Lafreniere no longer ?" It seemed to me my very heart stopped beating, so intense was the pain which overswept it.

Yet I held to the soft hands, for there was such a pitiful look of suffering upon her upturned face as to steady me.
"No, I knew it not," I answered brokenly.

"I--I have been buried in the forest all these years since we parted, where few rumors of the town have reached me.

But let that pass; it--it is easy to see you are now in great sorrow.