"
In his turn he was now before the window, ready to take his departure,
because she had sent him away from her.
"But it will make you die if I do so."
She had regained her calmness, and, smiling sadly, she replied:
"Oh! that work is nearly done already."
For one moment more he looked at her, so pale, so thin, so wan; light
as a feather, to be carried away by the faintest breath. Then, with a
brusque movement of furious resolution, he disappeared in the night.
When he was no longer there, Angelique, leaning against the back of her
armchair, stretched her hands out in agony towards the darkness, and her
frail body was shaken by heavy sobs, and cold perspiration came out upon
her face and neck.
"My God!" This, then, was the end, and she would never see him again.
All her weakness and pain had come back to her. Her exhausted limbs no
longer supported her. It was with great difficulty that she could regain
her bed, upon which she fell helpless, but calm in spirit from the
assurance that she had done right.
The next morning they found her there, dying. The lamp had just gone out
of itself, at the dawn of day, and everything in the chamber was of a
triumphal whiteness.
CHAPTER XVI
Angelique was dying.
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