Armine, Chapter XXXI-XXXIII [pp. 544-569]

I884.~ ARMIKE. 569
mune. In the second place, M. de Marigny has a right to
decline to retain what he does not feel to be justly his, and
you have no right to refuse to hear reasons for believing it
to be yours.
She looked at him with the same reluctant expression with
which she had first heard the proposal that she should see M.
de Marigny.
"You do not know how painful it would be," she said.
"Surely it is not necessary! Surely you can tell him what I
have said, and assure him that no argument can change my
resolution!"
"I might do that," said D'Antignac, "and still he would
be, by the nature of his position, constrained to insist on seeing you; and you have no reason that justifies you in refusing
to see him."
"I have the memory of my father's command and of my
promise that I would never speak to M. de Marigny again.
"My dear Armine, your own good sense must tell you
that you are not fettered by such a command or such a promise. Your father himself set both aside when he directed
you to prosecute the claim for the inheritance of Marigny,
since it would be impossible to refuse to hold communication
with a man who has never injured you and who is the head
of the family."
But I have told you that I have nothing, and can have
nothing, to do with the family in one way or another," she
said. "Therefore why should I be forced to do this thing?
But I do not wish to be childish or unreasonable," she added
after a moment, in which only the expression of D'Antignac's
face answered her last appeal, "and if you think it absolutely
necessary that I should see M. de NIarigny, I will see 1~im,
though it will be painful~oh! more painful than I can say."
TO U~ CONTINUED