y the impulse of
despair, and you've no right to despair. Couldn't you first try to turn
back, take some other direction and see how far you could proceed? You
believe me to be a sincere friend; I also believe in my friendship for
you, although with all my honesty of purpose, I cannot think solely of
your fate, but also a little of my own, when I aspire to be something
more than your friend. Don't be startled. I know I should speak a
language you would not understand, if I told you of the deep,
unconquerable, and ever increasing passion, which from the first hour
of our meeting has taken entire possession of me and with which you
will bear witness, that I've never troubled you until to-day. I don't
envy the count the part he plays, but it would be just as foolish, to
maintain total silence in regard to this love that exists and demands
to assert its rights in so solemn an hour. I know enough of your life
to be able to cheer myself with the thought that no one stands nearer
to you than I. Is it so utterly insane to cherish the hope, that I
might in time become still dearer, that you might find it worth while
to continue to live, if you should share your life with me, belong to
me and find your happiness in mine? Dear Toinette, I'll not praise
myself: but all whom I have ever loved will bear witness that I'm to be
trusted. In other respects you know me; from the first I have always
appeared what I am, never either in a moral or intellectual sense, have
visited you in borrowed attire. If I did not know, that despite your
unfortunate love of display, you possess a soul, true, simple and
incorruptable, I should not be such a fool as to offer myself to you.
All I possess has belonged to you from the first hour of our
acquaintance, and I believe it will be enough to support you without
too many deprivations; the passion I feel has first made me aware what
a treasure of love I have, enough for the most exacting heart, and so I
do not speak to you as a beggar. Whatever you give me, I can outweigh,
even if a miracle should happen--your heart at last awake to me, and
all that nature has lavished upon you be merged into the best gift--the
power to love.

"This probably surprises you," he continued after a pause, during which
she sat motionless on a chair by the door, her face expressionless and
immobile. "I too have been taken by surprise, although for months I
have told myself that this hour must come, for in spite of your
peculi