First came a thrill of glowing joy; he had some clew to all this: he was
a father; that child was Josephine's and his; the next moment he froze
within. So Josephine had not only gulled her husband, but him, too; she
had refused him the sad consolation of knowing he had a child. Cruelty,
calculation, and baseness unexampled! Here was a creature who could
sacrifice anything and anybody to her comfort, to the peace and sordid
smoothness of her domestic life. She stood between two men--a thing.
Between two truths--a double lie.
His heart, in one moment, turned against her like a stone. A
musket-bullet through the body does not turn life to death quicker than
Raynal turned his rival's love to despair and scorn: that love which
neither wounds, absence, prison, nor even her want of constancy had
prevailed to shake.
"Out of my bosom!" he cried--"out of it, in this world and the next!"
He forgot, in his lofty rage, who stood beside him.
"What?--what?" cried Raynal.
"No matter," said Camille; "only I esteem YOU, Raynal. You are truth;
you are a man, and deserve a better lot.
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