"Is it true ?" she asked in a transport.

"You love me, you love no one else?
Oh! tell me so again, and kiss me, and promise me that you will never belong to her." Weak as he was he could not resist her ardent caresses and pressing entreaties.

There came a moment of supreme cowardice and passion; her arms were around him and he forgot all but her, again and again repeating that he loved none other, and would never, never marry her daughter.

At last he even sank so low as to pretend that he simply regarded that poor, infirm creature with pity.

His words of compassionate disdain for her rival were like nectar to Eve, for they filled her with the blissful idea that it was she herself who would ever remain beautiful in his eyes and whom he would ever love....
At last silence fell between them, like an inevitable reaction after such a tempest of despair and passion.