But I myself shall remain hidden like the cause that science seeks.

God himself may not be glorious to the eye.

Well, naturally, the maiden will be curious; she will wish to see me; but I shall tell her that I am a monster of ugliness; I shall picture myself hideous." At these words Modeste gave Butscha a glance that looked him through and through.

If she had said aloud, "What do you know of my love ?" she could not have been more explicit.
"If I have the honor of being loved for the poem of my heart, if some day such love may make a woman think me only slightly deformed, I ask you, mademoiselle, shall I not be happier than the handsomest of men,--as happy as a man of genius beloved by some celestial being like yourself." The color which suffused the young girl's face told the cripple nearly all he sought to know.
"Well, if that be so," he went on, "if we enrich the one we love, if we please the spirit and withdraw the body, is not that the way to make one's self beloved?
At any rate it is the dream of your poor dwarf,--a dream of yesterday; for to-day your mother gives me the key to future wealth by promising me the means of buying a practice.

But before I become another Gobenheim, I seek to know whether this dream could be really carried out.