A Parisian Romance — page 185: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

176 A PARISIAN ROMANCE. shame. She had listened to him to the end! Feigned not to understand him. Submitted to that odious kiss. Wretch, wretch that she was! What was to be done! If she remained in Paris, she was lost! One day or another, in a moment of weak- ness, of despair, of terrible temptation, she might yield and become the lowest of women. Ah! why had they prevented her joining that concert troupe? that would have been safety. But no, they were cruel! they were blind! To keep her here in that wretched little apartment was to condemn her not _ alone to suffering, to poverty, but also to evil. Yes! To go away was her only salvation. To go away! She stopped short with dilated eyes, and. her breath coming in short gasps through her parted lips. Go away! Fly to the other end of the world! Why not? There was yet time. Trembling with excitement, she drew from her pocket the little crumpled note she had thrust there at the entrance of her visitors, and, smoothing it out, read again: “Do not forget. The train leaves at six. I still hope.” She glanced at the clock on the mantel. It was a quarter past five. | For a moment, she stood motionless as a statue, her somber eyes fixed on vacancy. Then, witha - gesture of despair, she turned and fled from the room, , Eomichooks: co