their journey, and every one of these details
was a source of pleasure. Happy disposition of the soul, in which all
the arrangements of life have a particular charm, from their connection
with some hope of the heart! That moment arrives only too soon, when
each hour of our existence is as fatiguing as its entirety, when every
morning requires an effort to support the awakening and to guide the day
to its close.

The moment Lord Nelville left Corinne's house in order to prepare every
thing for their departure, the Count d'Erfeuil arrived, and learnt from
her the project which they had just determined on.--"Surely you don't
think of such a thing!" said he, "what! travel with Lord Nelville
without his being your husband! without his having promised to marry
you! And what will you do if he abandon you?" "Why," replied Corinne,
"in any situation of life if he were to cease to love me, I should be
the most wretched creature in the world!" "Yes, but if you have done
nothing to compromise your character, you will remain entirely
yourself."--"Remain entirely myself, when the deepest sentiment of my
life shall be withered? when my heart shall be broken?"--"The public
will not know it, and by a little dissimulation you would lose nothing
in the general opinion." "And why should I take pains to preserve that
opinion," replied Corinne, "if not to gain an additional charm in the
eyes of him I love?"--"We may cease to love," answered the Count, "but
we cannot cease to live in the midst of society, and to need its
services."--"Ah! if I could think," retorted Corinne, "that that day
would arrive when Oswald's affection would not be all in all to me in
this world; if I could believe it, I should already have ceased to love.
What is love when it anticipates and reckons upon the moment when it
shall no longer exist? If there be any thing religious in this
sentiment, it is because it makes every other interest disappear, and,
like devotion, takes a pleasure in the entire sacrifice of self."

"What is that you tell me?" replied the Count d'Erfeuil, "can such an
intellectual lady as you fill her head with such nonsense? It is the
advantage of us men that women think as you do--we have thus more
ascendancy over you; but your superiority must not be lost, it must be
serviceable to you." "Serviceable to me?" said Corinne, "Ah! I owe it
much, if it has enabled me to feel more acutely all that is interesting
and generous in the character of Lord