You have always lived here and it is not possible for you to guess what life is elsewhere, nor would I be able to make you understand were I to talk forever.

But I love you, Maria, I earn a good wage and I never touch a drop.

If you will marry me as I ask I will take you off to a country that will open your eyes with astonishment--a fine country, not a bit like this, where we can live in a decent way and be happy for the rest of our days." Maria still was silent, and yet the sentences of Lorenzo Surprenant beat upon her heart as succeeding waves roll against the shore.

It was not his avowals of love, honest and sincere though they were, but the lures he used which tempted her.

Only of cheap pleasures had he spoken, of trivial things ministering to comfort or vanity, but of these alone was she able to conjure up a definite idea.