He was ready to take old de Barral--the convict--on
his daughter's valuation without the slightest reserve. But love like
his, though it may drive one into risky folly by the proud consciousness
of its own strength, has a sagacity of its own. And now, as if lifted up
into a higher and serene region by its purpose of renunciation, it gave
him leisure to reflect for the first time in these last few days. He
said to himself: "I don't know that man. She does not know him either.
She was barely sixteen when they locked him up. She was a child. What
will he say? What will he do? No, he concluded, I cannot leave her
behind with that man who would come into the world as if out of a grave.
They went on board in silence, and it was after showing her round and
when they had returned to the saloon that he assailed her in his fiery,
masterful fashion. At first she did not understand. Then when she
understood that he was giving her her liberty she went stiff all over,
her hand resting on the edge of the table, her face set like a carving of
white marble. It was all over.
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