Cadurcis, 'if
you will do exactly what I wish on one.'

'Well!' said Venetia.

'Once you told me,' said Cadurcis, 'that you would not marry me
without the consent of your father; then, most unfairly, you added to
your conditions the consent of your mother. Now both your parents are
very opportunely at hand; let us fall down upon our knees, and beg
their blessing.'

'O! my dear Plantagenet, I think it will be much better for me never
to marry. We are both happy now; let us remain so. You can live here,
and I can be your sister. Will not that do?'

'No, Venetia, it will not.'

'Dear Plantagenet!' said Venetia with a faltering voice, 'if you knew
how much I had suffered, dear Plantagenet!'

'I know it; I know all,' said Cadurcis, taking her arm and placing it
tenderly in his. 'Now listen to me, sweet girl; I loved you when a
child, when I was unknown to the world, and unknown to myself; I loved
you as a youth not utterly inexperienced in the world, and when my
rising passions had taught me to speculate on the character of women;
I loved you as a man, Venetia, with that world at my feet, that
world which I scorn, but which I will command; I have been constant,
Venetia; your heart assures you, of that. You are the only being in
existence who exercises over me any influence; and the influence you
possess is irresistible and eternal. It springs from some deep and
mysterious sympathy of blood which I cannot penetrate. It can neither
be increased nor diminished by time. It is entirely independent of
its action. I pretend not to love you more at this moment than when
I first saw you, when you entered the terrace-room at Cherbury and
touched my cheek. From that moment I was yours. I declare to you, most
solemnly I declare to you, that I know not what love is except to you.
The world has called me a libertine; the truth is, no other woman can
command my spirit for an hour. I see through them at a glance. I read
all their weakness, frivolity, vanity, affectation, as if they were
touched by the revealing rod of Asmodeus. You were born to be my
bride. Unite yourself with me, control my destiny, and my course shall
be like the sun of yesterday; but reject me, reject me, and I devote
all my energies to the infernal gods; I will pour my lava over the
earth until all that remains of my fatal and exhausted nature is a
black and barren cone surrounded by bitter desolation.'

'Plantagenet; be calm!'

'I am perfectly calm, Venetia