in reality? but who will deny, either, that
the real possesses a more seductive charm than that which exists only in
the imagination? The vagueness and etherealness of a phantasm, however
beautiful it may be, can not compete with what is palpable and visible
to the senses. I can understand that holy images might exercise a more
powerful influence over your spirit than the pictures of mundane beauty
created by your fancy, but I fear that those holy images will not prove
equally powerful where mundane realities are concerned."

"Have no such fear, madam," returned Don Luis. "My fancy possesses, by
its own creations, more power over my spirit than does the whole
universe--only excepting yourself--by what it transmits to it through
the senses."

"And why except me? Such an exception gives room to the suspicion that
the idea you have of me, the idea which you love, may be but the
creation of this potent fancy of yours, and an illusion that resembles
me in nothing."

"No, this is not the case. You may be assured that this idea resembles
you in everything. It may be that it is innate in my soul, that it has
existed in it since it was created by God, that it is a part of its
essence, the best and purest part of its being, as the perfume is of the
flower."

"This is what I had feared, and now you confess it to me. You do not
love me. What you love is the essence, the fragrance, the purest part of
your own soul, that has assumed a form resembling mine."

"No, Pepita; do not seek to amuse yourself in tormenting me. What I love
is you--and you such as you really are; but what I love is also so
beautiful, so pure, so delicate that I can not understand how it should
have reached my mind, in a material manner, through the senses. I take
it for granted, then, and it is my firm belief, that it must have had an
innate existence there. It is like the idea of God that is inborn in my
soul, that has unfolded and developed itself within my soul, and that
has, nevertheless, its counterpart in reality, superior, infinitely
superior to the idea. As I believe that God exists, so do I believe that
you exist, and that you are a thousand times superior to the idea that I
have formed of you."

"Still, I have a doubt left. May it not be woman in general, and not I,
solely and exclusively, that has awakened this idea?"

"No, Pepita; before I saw you, I had felt in imagination what might be
the magic power, the fascination of a woman, beautifu