"Let me, in this moment of happiness, tell you mine; and you shall tell me in return whether the conclusion of the tale I have invented for my life is possible.

To me wealth would bring greater happiness than to other men; for the highest happiness I can imagine would be to enrich the one I loved.

You, mademoiselle, who know so many things, tell me if it is possible for a man to make himself beloved independently of his person, be it handsome or ugly, and for his spirit only ?" Modeste raised her eyes and looked at Butscha.

It was a piercing and questioning glance; for she shared Dumay's suspicion of Butscha's motive.
"Let me be rich, and I will seek some beautiful poor girl, abandoned like myself, who has suffered, who knows what misery is.

I will write to her and console her, and be her guardian spirit; she shall read my heart, my soul; she shall possess by double wealth, my two wealths,--my gold, delicately offered, and my thought robed in all the splendor which the accident of birth has denied to my grotesque body.