entertain a wish to be your wife. What I feel is very
new to me: my ideas of life, my projects for the future, are all upset
by this sentiment, which every day disturbs and enslaves me more and
more. But I know not whether we can, whether we ought to be united!"--
"Corinne," replied Oswald, "would you despise me for having hesitated?
Would you attribute that hesitation to trifling considerations? Have you
not divined that the deep and sad remorse which for two years has preyed
upon me, could alone cause my indecision?"

"I have comprehended it," replied Corinne; "had I suspected you of a
motive foreign to the affections of the heart, you would not have been
he whom I loved. But life, I know, does not entirely belong to love.
Habits, recollections, and circumstances, create around us a sort of
entanglement that passion itself cannot destroy. Broken for a moment, it
will join again, and encircle our heart as the ivy twines round the oak.
My dear Oswald, let us not appropriate to any epoch of our existence
more than that epoch demands. Nothing is now so absolutely necessary to
my happiness as that you should not leave me. The terror of your sudden
departure pursues me incessantly. You are a stranger in this country,
and bound to it by no tie. Should you go, all my prospects would
fade,--you would leave your poor Corinne nothing but her grief. This
beautiful climate, these fine arts, that poetical inspiration which I
feel with you, and now, alas! with you alone, would for me become mute.
I never awake but trembling; when I behold the god of day, I know not
whether it deceives me by its resplendent beams, ignorant as I am
whether this city still contains you within its walls--you, the star of
my life! Oswald, remove this terror from my soul, and I will desire to
know nothing beyond the delightful security you will give me."--"You
know," replied Oswald, "that an Englishman can never abandon his native
country, that war may recall me, that--" "Oh, God!" cried Corinne, "are
you going to prepare me for the dreadful moment?" and she trembled in
every limb, as at the approach of some terrible danger.--"Well, if it be
so, take me with you as your wife--as your slave--" But, suddenly
recovering herself, she said--"Oswald, you will not go without giving me
previous notice of your departure, will you? Hear me: in no country
whatever, is a criminal conducted to execution without some hours being
allotted for him to collect his thoughts.