ng is certain, and that is that
you would have been a detestable husband; you would have made me blush
for your ignorance; you would have wanted to rule me, and we should have
fallen foul of each other; that would have driven my father to despair,
and, as you know, my father had to be considered before everything. I
might, perhaps, have risked my own fate lightly enough, if I had been
alone in the world, for I have a strain of rashness in my nature; but
it was essential that my father should remain happy, and tranquil, and
respected. He had brought me up in happiness and independence, and I
should never have forgiven myself if I had deprived his old age of the
blessings he had lavished on my whole life. Do not think that I am full
of virtues and noble qualities, as the abbe pretends; I love, that is
all; but I love strongly, exclusively, steadfastly. I sacrificed you to
my father, my poor Bernard; and Heaven, who would have cursed us if I
had sacrificed my father, rewards us to-day by giving us to each other,
tried and not found wanting. As you grew greater in my eyes I felt
that I could wait, because I knew I had to love you long, and I was not
afraid of seeing my passion vanish before it was satisfied, as do the
passions of feeble souls. We were two exceptional characters; our loves
had to be heroic; the beaten track would have led both of us to ruin."

XXX

We returned to Sainte-Severe at the expiration of Edmee's period of
mourning. This was the time that had been fixed for our marriage. When
we had quitted the province where we had both experienced so many bitter
mortifications and such grievous trials, we had imagined that we
should never feel any inclination to return. Yet, so powerful are the
recollections of childhood and the ties of family life that, even in the
heart of an enchanted land which could not arouse painful memories, we
had quickly begun to regret our gloomy, wild Varenne, and sighed for the
old oaks in the park. We returned, then, with a sense of profound yet
solemn joy. Edmee's first care was to gather the beautiful flowers in
the garden and to kneel by her father's grave and arrange them on it. We
kissed the hallowed ground, and there made a vow to strive unceasingly
to leave a name as worthy of respect and veneration as his. He had
frequently carried this ambition to the verge of weakness, but it was a
noble weakness, a sacred vanity.

Our marriage was celebrated in the village chapel,