I only ask to be able to see you, even without any hope; merely for the joy of living thus at your feet." Felicien stopped, disheartened, losing all courage as he thought he would never find any way of touching her heart.

And he did not see that Angelique smiled, half hidden as she was by the open window-sash.

It was an invincible smile, that, little by little, spread over her whole face.
Ah! the dear fellow! How simple and trusting he was as he outpoured the prayer of his heart, filled with new longings and love, in bowing before her, as before the highest ideal of all his youthful dreams.
To think that she had ever been so foolish as at first to try to avoid all meetings with him, and then, later on, had determined that although she could not help loving him, he should never know it! Such folly on her part was quite inexplicable.

Since love is right, and is the fate of all, what good could be gained by making martyrs of them both?
A complete silence ensued, and in her enthusiastic, imaginative, nervous state, she heard, louder than ever, in the quiet of the warm night, the voices of the saints about her, who said love was never forbidden when it was so ardent and true as this.

Behind her back a bright flash of light had suddenly appeared; scarcely a breath, but a delicate wave from the moon upon the chamber floor.