our presence and have no whims save those that
amuse you. Come, what shall I do for you, friend? Shall I sing, shall I
dance, though weariness deprives me of the use of voice and limbs?--Ah!
gentlemen, be we on our deathbeds, we yet must smile to please you; you
call that, methinks, your right. Poor women! I pity them. Tell me, you
who abandon them when they grow old, is it because they have neither
hearts nor souls? Wilfrid, I am a hundred years old; leave me! leave me!
go to Minna!"

"Oh, my eternal love!"

"Do you know the meaning of eternity? Be silent, Wilfrid. You desire
me, but you do not love me. Tell me, do I not seem to you like those
coquettish Parisian women?"

"Certainly I no longer find you the pure celestial maiden I first saw in
the church of Jarvis."

At these words Seraphita passed her hands across her brow, and when
she removed them Wilfrid was amazed at the saintly expression that
overspread her face.

"You are right, my friend," she said; "I do wrong whenever I set my feet
upon your earth."

"Oh, Seraphita, be my star! stay where you can ever bless me with that
clear light!"

As he spoke, he stretched forth his hand to take that of the young girl,
but she withdrew it, neither disdainfully nor in anger. Wilfrid rose
abruptly and walked to the window that she might not see the tears that
rose to his eyes.

"Why do you weep?" she said. "You are not a child, Wilfrid. Come back to
me. I wish it. You are annoyed if I show just displeasure. You see that
I am fatigued and ill, yet you force me to think and speak, and listen
to persuasions and ideas that weary me. If you had any real perception
of my nature, you would have made some music, you would have lulled my
feelings--but no, you love me for yourself and not for myself."

The storm which convulsed the young man's heart calmed down at these
words. He slowly approached her, letting his eyes take in the seductive
creature who lay exhausted before him, her head resting in her hand and
her elbow on the couch.

"You think that I do not love you," she resumed. "You are mistaken.
Listen to me, Wilfrid. You are beginning to know much; you have suffered
much. Let me explain your thoughts to you. You wished to take my hand
just now"; she rose to a sitting posture, and her graceful motions
seemed to emit light. "When a young girl allows her hand to be taken it
is as though she made a promise, is it not? and ought she not to fulfil
it? You well know t