'
'How Biblical you are getting,' said the young man, ironically; 'but
kindly stop speaking in parables, and tell me what position we are
to occupy to each other. As formerly?'
'My God, no!' she flashed out suddenly.
'So much the better,' he answered, bowing. 'We will obliterate the
last year from our memories, and I will meet you to-night for the
first time since you left Ballarat. Of course,' he went on, rather
anxiously, 'you have told Madame nothing?'
'Only what suited me,' replied the girl, coldly, stung by the
coldness and utter heartlessness of this man.
'Oh!' with a smile. 'Did it include my name?'
'No,' curtly.
'Ah!' with a long indrawn breath, 'you are more sensible than I gave
you credit for.'
Kitty rose to her feet and crossed rapidly over to where he sat calm
and smiling.
'Gaston Vandeloup!' she hissed in his ear, while her face was quite
distorted by the violence of her passion, 'when I met you I was an
innocent girl--you ruined me, and then cast me off as soon as you
grew weary of your toy. I thought you loved me, and,' with a stifled
sob, 'God help me, I love you still.'
'Yes, my Bebe,' he said, in a caressing tone, taking her hand.
'No! no,' she cried, wrenching them away, while an angry spot of
colour glowed on her cheek, 'I loved you as you were--not as you are
now--we are done with sentiment, M. Vandeloup,' she said, sneering,
'and now our relations to one another will be purely business ones.
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