e famous lovers in history put together! He
would be her slave; a carpet for her to tread underfoot; a dog, always
at her feet, his eyes burning with the fire of eternal fidelity! She
would finally learn to be fond of him, if not out of passion, at least
out of gratitude and pity!

And as he spoke, he brought his face close to Leonora's, looking for his
own image in the depths of her green eyes; and he pressed her arm in a
fever of passion.

"Careful, Rafael.... That hurts! Let go, of me."

And as if suddenly sensing a danger in the full of a sweet dream, she
shuddered and pulled herself free with a nervous violence.

Then, quite recovered from the intoxication into which she had been led
by Rafael's passionate appeal, she began to speak calmly, composedly.

No; what he asked was impossible. Her fate was ordained; she did not
want love any more.... Friendship had carried them a bit astray. It was
her fault, but she would find a way to remedy that. If she had known him
years before--perhaps! She might have learned to love him. He was more
worthy of being loved than many of the men she had accepted. But he had
come too late. Now she was content with just living. Besides, what a
horror! Imagine a "grand passion" in a petty environment such as they
were in, a tiny world of gossip-mongers and evil tongues! Imagine having
to hide like a criminal to express a noble emotion! No, when she loved,
she loved in the open, with the sublime immodesty of the masterpiece
that scandalizes bumpkins with its naked beauty! How impossible it would
be, finding herself nibbled at constantly by gossiping fools, quite
beneath her contempt. She would feel the scorn and the indignation of a
whole town about her. They would accuse her of leading an innocent boy
astray, alienating him from his own mother. "No, Rafael; a thousand
times no; I have a little conscience left! I'm not the irresponsible
siren I used to be."

"But what about me?" cried the youth, seizing her arm again with a
boyish petulance. "You think of yourself and of other people, but never
of me. What am I going to do all along with my suffering?"

"Oh, you? Why ... you will forget," said Leonora gravely. "I have just
realized this very moment that it is impossible for me to stay here any
longer. We two must separate. I will leave before Spring is over; I'll
go ... I don't know where, back to the world at any rate, take up my
singing again, where I'll not find men of just your