so fatuous as never to dream of a
suspicion. Though my jealousy would have been of a hundred and twenty
Othello-power, that terrible passion slumbered in me as gold in the
nugget. I would have ordered my servant to thrash me if I had been
so base as ever to doubt the purity of that angel--so fragile and so
strong, so fair, so artless, pure, spotless, and whose blue eyes allowed
my gaze to sound it to the very depths of her heart with adorable
submissiveness. Never was there the slightest hesitancy in her attitude,
her look, or word; always white and fresh, and ready for the Beloved
like the Oriental Lily of the 'Song of Songs!' Ah! my friends!" sadly
exclaimed the Minister, grown young again, "a man must hit his head very
hard on the marble to dispel that poem!"

This cry of nature, finding an echo in the listeners, spurred the
curiosity he had excited in them with so much skill.

"Every morning, riding Sultan--the fine horse you sent me from England,"
de Marsay went on, addressing Lord Dudley, "I rode past her open
carriage, the horses' pace being intentionally reduced to a walk, and
read the order of the day signaled to me by the flowers of her bouquet
in case we were unable to exchange a few words. Though we saw each
other almost every evening in society, and she wrote to me every day, to
deceive the curious and mislead the observant we had adopted a scheme of
conduct: never to look at each other; to avoid meeting; to speak ill
of each other. Self-admiration, swagger, or playing the disdained
swain,--all these old manoeuvres are not to compare on either part
with a false passion professed for an indifferent person and an air of
indifference towards the true idol. If two lovers will only play that
game, the world will always be deceived; but then they must be very
secure of each other.

"Her stalking-horse was a man in high favor, a courtier, cold and
sanctimonious, whom she never received at her own house. This little
comedy was performed for the benefit of simpletons and drawing-room
circles, who laughed at it. Marriage was never spoken of between us; six
years' difference of age might give her pause; she knew nothing of my
fortune, of which, on principle, I have always kept the secret. I, on my
part, fascinated by her wit and manners, by the extent of her knowledge
and her experience of the world, would have married her without a
thought. At the same time, her reserve charmed me. If she had been the
first to spe