you have sixty thousand francs a year of your own, and if you
cannot give me back your heart, at least do not abandon your fortune to
me."

"'"I have long known your kindness," said she.

"'"Though you should prefer to remain here," said I, "and to preserve
your independence; though the most ardent love should find no favor in
your eyes, still, do not toil."

"'I gave her three certificates for twelve thousand francs a year each;
she took them, opened them languidly, and after reading them through she
gave me only a look as my reward. She fully understood that I was not
offering her money, but freedom.

"'"I am conquered," said she, holding out her hand, which I kissed.
"Come and see me as often as you like."

"'So she had done herself a violence in receiving me. Next day I found
her armed with affected high spirits, and it took two months of habit
before I saw her in her true character. But then it was like a delicious
May, a springtime of love that gave me ineffable bliss; she was no
longer afraid; she was studying me. Alas! when I proposed that she
should go to England to return ostensibly to me, to our home, that she
should resume her rank and live in our new residence, she was seized
with alarm.

"'"Why not live always as we are?" she said.

"'I submitted without saying a word.

"'"Is she making an experiment?" I asked myself as I left her. On my way
from my own house to the Rue Saint-Maur thoughts of love had swelled in
my heart, and I had said to myself, like a young man, "This evening she
will yield."

"'All my real or affected force was blown to the winds by a smile, by a
command from those proud, calm eyes, untouched by passion. I remembered
the terrible words you once quoted to me, "Lucretia's dagger wrote in
letters of blood the watchword of woman's charter--Liberty!" and
they froze me. I felt imperatively how necessary to me was Honorine's
consent, and how impossible it was to wring it from her. Could she guess
the storms that distracted me when I left as when I came?

"'At last I painted my situation in a letter to her, giving up the
attempt to speak of it. Honorine made no answer, and she was so sad that
I made as though I had not written. I was deeply grieved by the idea
that I could have distressed her; she read my heart and forgave me. And
this was how. Three days ago she received me, for the first time, in
her own blue-and-white room. It was bright with flowers, dressed, and
lighted up.