rent regions of heaven in a minute. He who
could thus conceive all that an instant might contain, must surely have
felt the sublime power of music by the side of the object he loved.
Oswald felt this power, and his resentment became gradually appeased.
The feelings of Corinne explained and justified everything; he gently
approached her, and Corinne heard him breathing by her side in the most
enchanting passage of this celestial music. It was too much--the most
pathetic tragedy could not have excited in her heart so much sensation
as this intimate sentiment of profound emotion which penetrated them
both at the same time, and which each succeeding moment, each new sound,
continually exalted. The words of a song have no concern in producing
this emotion--they may indeed occasionally excite some passing
reflection on love or death; but it is the indefinite charm of music
which blends itself with every feeling of the soul; and each one thinks
he finds in this melody, as in the pure and tranquil star of night, the
image of what he wishes for on earth.

"Let us retire," said Corinne; "I feel ready to faint." "What ails you?"
said Oswald, with uneasiness; "you grow pale. Come into the open air
with me; come." They went out together. Corinne, leaning on the arm of
Oswald, felt her strength revive from the consciousness of his support.
They both approached a balcony, and Corinne, with profound emotion, said
to her lover, "Dear Oswald, I am about to leave you for eight days."
"What do you tell me?" interrupted he. "Every year," replied she, "at
the approach of Holy Week, I go to pass some time in a convent, to
prepare myself for the solemnity of Easter." Oswald advanced nothing in
opposition to this intention; he knew that at this epoch, the greater
part of the Roman ladies gave themselves up to the most rigid devotion,
without however on that account troubling themselves very seriously
about religion during the rest of the year; but he recollected that
Corinne professed a different worship to his, and that they could not
pray together. "Why are you not," cried he, "of the same religion as
myself?" Having pronounced this wish, he stopped short. "Have not our
hearts and minds the same country?" answered Corinne. "It is true,"
replied Oswald; "but I do not feel less painfully all that separates
us." They were then joined by Corinne's friends; but this eight days'
absence so oppressed his heart that he did not utter a word during the