'Alas, you robbed me of one man, you give me back another.

I know him now for what he is.

If he did not love her then, he does now.

It is too late!' She seemed so much overcome that I assisted her to reach a bench which stood against the wall a few paces away; nor, I confess, was it without difficulty and much self-reproach that I limited myself to those prudent offices only which her state and my duty required.

To console her on the subject of her husband was impossible; to ignore him, and so to console her, a task which neither my discretion nor my sense of honour, though sorely tried, permitted me to undertake.
She presently recovered and, putting on her mask again, said hurriedly that she had still a word to say to me.