"Kiss me," said Jacques, with eyes full of tears."I believe you--yes, I believe you--and you give me back my courage, both for now and hereafter.
You are right; we must try and get to work again, or else nothing remains but Father Arsene's bushel of charcoal; for, my girl," added Jacques, in a low and trembling voice, "I have been like a drunken man these six months, and now I am getting sober, and see whither we are going.Our means once exhausted, I might perhaps have become a robber, and you--"
"Oh, Jacques! don't talk so--it is frightful," interrupted Cephyse; "I swear to you that I will return to my sister--that I will work--that I will have courage!"
Thus saying, the Bacchanal Queen was very sincere; she fully intended to keep her word, for her heart was not yet completely corrupted.Misery and want had been with her, as with so many others, the cause and the excuse of her worst errors.Until now, she had at least followed the instincts of her heart, without regard to any base or venal motive.The cruel position in which she beheld Jacques had so far exalted her love, that she believed herself capable of resuming, along with Mother Bunch, that life of sterile and incessant toil, full of painful sacrifices and privations, which once had been impossible for her to bear, and which the habits of a life of leisure and dissipation would now render still more difficult.