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183 STRAIT IS THE GATE

offered only a slight resistance and I was on the point of forcing it open with my shoulder. . . At that moment I heard the sound of steps; I drew back round the corner of the wall. I could not see who it was that came out of the garden; but I heard, I felt it was Alissa. She took three steps forward and called in a weak voice: “Is that you, Jerome?” My heart, which was beating violently, stopped, and as no word would come from my choking throat, she repeated louder : "Jerome! Is that you?" At hearing her call me in this way, the emotion which seized on me was so great that it forced me to my knees. As I still did not answer, Alissa took a few steps forward, turned the corner of the wall , and I suddenly felt her against me — against me, who was kneeling there hiding my face with my arm, as if in dread of seeing her too soon. She remained a few moments stooping over me, while I covered her frail hands with kisses. "Why were you hiding?" she said, as simply as if those three years of absence had lasted only a few days. "How did you guess it was I?” “I was expecting you." "Expecting me?" said I, so astonished that I

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