human
I shall die, the latter said more than once,
gpt
I shall die ere we reach Marseilles. Oh! Marion, let them not leave me by the wayside.
human
Bah! Marion answered,
gpt
For what? the other would ask.
human
For what? and her soft eyes would look so sad that Marion, still unregenerate, would swear a fierce southern oath to herself, while she folded Laure to her bosom and strained her to it with her strong arms.
gpt
For what? Marion would repeat.
human
Why, for freedom, first; for justice. That poor imbecile marching ahead of us (she was referring to her newly-espoused husband)
gpt
(for Marion knew it all now):
human
I do not know them,
gpt
You love your husband?
human
Ah!
gpt
You love him, I say. My God! do I not know what love is! and she smote her breast as she spoke.
human
You love him. You have told me all. You loved him; you came to love him on the day you married him, the day he saved you from that--that animal!
gpt
He is dead! Laure wailed.
human
He is dead!
gpt
I doubt it. Men do not die easily. Possibly, here, too, she was speaking from experience.
human
I doubt it. More like, those animals, Desparre and your uncle, caused him to be arrested and thrown into prison; remember, they may have encountered him on their road to you. He may be--who knows?--in the chain that is now on its road to Brest or Dunkirk.
gpt
Or suppose Desparre lied to you; suppose they had not encountered him at all. Suppose, I say, he came back to you that night, the next morning, and found you gone; with none to tell where--you say yourself that no servant appeared on the scene ere the exempts dragged you away. Suppose he came back. What then?
human
I do not know; I cannot think.
gpt
I can. He will find out what has become of you, follow you. _Mon Dieu!_ as a sudden thought flashed into her mind.
human
Did he not tell you he meant himself to emigrate to Louisiana, the very place to which we go. Courage; courage; courage.
gpt
Oh! Laure gasped,
human
Dared to hope! There is nothing else to be supposed but that. He will be there. Surely, surely, Laure, you will meet your husband in this colony, big as they say it is. All will be well.
gpt
Nay, she said,
human
What?
gpt
That I surrendered; that I had come to love him. Yet of what avail would that? He will be a gentleman planter; I--I a released convict, a woman earning her bread by labour. Also, he knows--that--I have no origin.
human
He knew it before he married you. And, knowing it, be sure he loved you.