"Alas!" said Julie, unable to restrain that outcry of nature; "I might have been cured!"
"What do you mean?" cried Julien, beside himself. "Have you taken poison? Answer, tell me! I insist upon knowing!"
"No, no, I have not!" she replied, dragging him away with a sudden, desperate movement which made a profound impression on him.
She had been leaning over the water, she had seen therein the reflection of her face and her white dress; she had remembered that, an hour later, she must be lying there motionless, dead; she had sworn it. That was the price of her broken oath, that was the price of Julien's happiness; a ghastly fear of death had made her shudder and start back.
"What are you afraid of?" he asked her; "what did you see in the water? what were you thinking about? what made you
