Explain to me, then, why this must be so, Marie-Anne.

Who knows but you are frightened by chimeras, which my experience can scatter with a breath?
Have you no confidence in me?
Am I not an old friend?
It may be that your father, in his despair, has adopted extreme resolutions.

Speak, let us combat them together.
Lacheneur knows how devotedly I am attached to him.

I will speak to him; he will listen to _me_." "_I_ can tell you nothing, Monsieur." "What! you are so cruel as to remain inflexible when a father entreats you on his knees--a father who says to you: 'Marie-Anne, you hold in your hands the happiness, the life, the reason of my son----'" Tears glittered in Marie-Anne's eyes, but she drew away her hand.
"Ah! it is you who are cruel, Monsieur; it is you who are without pity.
Do you not see what I suffer, and that it is impossible for me to endure further torture?
No, I have nothing to tell you; there is nothing you can say to my father.

Why do you seek to impair my courage when I require it all to struggle against my despair?
Maurice must forget me; he must never see me again.