The service over, He descended into the Garden.

He bent his steps towards the same spot where, on the preceding night, He had made this embarrassing discovery.
He doubted not but that Matilda would seek him there: He was not deceived.

She soon entered the Hermitage, and approached the Monk with a timid air.

After a few minutes during which both were silent, She appeared as if on the point of speaking; But the Abbot, who during this time had been summoning up all his resolution, hastily interrupted her.
Though still unconscious how extensive was its influence, He dreaded the melodious seduction of her voice.
'Seat yourself by my side, Matilda,' said He, assuming a look of firmness, though carefully avoiding the least mixture of severity; 'Listen to me patiently, and believe, that in what I shall say, I am not more influenced by my own interest than by yours: Believe, that I feel for you the warmest friendship, the truest compassion, and that you cannot feel more grieved than I do, when I declare to you that we must never meet again.' 'Ambrosio!' She cried, in a voice at once expressive of surprise and sorrow.
'Be calm, my Friend! My Rosario! Still let me call you by that name so dear to me! Our separation is unavoidable; I blush to own, how sensibly it affects me.-- But yet it must be so.

I feel myself incapable of treating you with indifference, and that very conviction obliges me to insist upon your departure.