He loved me, and I thought I loved
him until--until I learned what love is, Etienne. He will never
forgive you. He has a heart of stone."
"Let them do what they like. They cannot rob me of the past,
Lucia. But you--what about you?"
"It will be nothing, Etienne. Only a pang for an instant and
then all over. They mean it as a badge of infamy, dear, but I
will carry it like a crown of honour since it was through you
that I gained it."
Her words froze my blood with horror. All my adventures were
insignificant compared to this terrible shadow which was creeping
over my soul.
"Lucia! Lucia!" I cried. "For pity's sake tell me what these
butchers are about to do. Tell me, Lucia!
Tell me!"
"I will not tell you, Etienne, for it would hurt you far more
than it would me. Well, well, I will tell you lest you should
fear it was something worse. The president has ordered that my
ear be cut off, that I may be marked for ever as having loved a
Frenchman."
Her ear! The dear little ear which I had kissed so often.
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