Alice's letter was still in his fingers.
She came and touched his shoulder.
"Are you going to leave me, Gaston?
What does that letter say ?" He looked at her kindly, with a protective tenderness.
"Read the letter, Andree," he said.
She did so, at first slowly, then quickly, then over and over again.
He stood motionless in the window.

She pushed the letter between his fingers.

He did not turn.

"I cannot understand everything, but what she says she means.

Oh, Gaston, what a fool, what a fool you've been!" After a moment, however, she threw her arms about him with animal-like fierceness.
"But I can't give you up--I can't." Then, with another of those sudden changes, she added, with a wild little laugh: "I can't, I can't, O Master of the Hounds!" There came a knock at the door.