to
conceal from her by an air of mystery that Oswald had confided nothing
to him, or whether he believed it more honourable to refuse what was
asked of him than to grant it, he opposed an invincible silence to the
ardent curiosity of Corinne. She who had always had an ascendency over
those with whom she conversed, could not comprehend why all her means of
persuasion were without effect upon the Count d'Erfeuil: did she not
know that there is nothing in the world so inflexible as self-love?

What resource remained then to Corinne to know what was passing in the
heart of Oswald! should she write to him? The formality it would require
was too foreign to her open disposition. Three days glided away, during
which she did not see Lord Nelville, and was tormented by the most cruel
agitation.--"What have I done then," said she, "to drive him from me? I
have not told him that I loved him.--I have not been guilty of that
crime, so terrible in England, but so pardonable in Italy. Has he
guessed it? But why should he esteem me the less for it?" Oswald had
only absented himself from Corinne because he felt the power of her
charms becoming too strong to resist. Though he had not given his word
to espouse Lucilia Edgermond, he knew it was his father's wish that she
should become his wife, and to that wish he desired to conform. Besides,
Corinne was not known by her real name, and had, for several years, led
a life much too independent. Such a marriage, Lord Nelville believed
would not have obtained the approbation of his father, and he felt that
it was not thus he could expiate the transgressions he had been guilty
of towards him. Such were his motives for removing himself from the
presence of Corinne. He had formed the project of writing to her on
quitting Rome, stating the motives that condemned him to this
resolution; but as he could not find strength to do that, he contented
himself with abstaining from visiting her, and even this sacrifice
became almost too painful to bear from the second day of his absence.

Corinne was struck with an idea that she should never behold Oswald
again; that he would go away without bidding her adieu. She expected
every instant to receive the news of his departure, and this fear so
increased the agony of her feelings that she felt herself all of a
sudden seized by passion, that vulture beneath whose talons happiness
and independence sink. Unable to endure the house that Lord Nelville no
longer visi