He looked at her with a strange expression of kindness, of sorrow, yet of tender affection, in his eyes; but his lips were stern, and his voice cold, as he replied,-- "Do you know what you ask, Viola?
Do you guess the danger to yourself--perhaps to both of us--which you court?
Do you know that my life, separated from the turbulent herd of men, is one worship of the Beautiful, from which I seek to banish what the Beautiful inspires in most?
As a calamity, I shun what to man seems the fairest fate,--the love of the daughters of earth.

At present I can warn and save thee from many evils; if I saw more of thee, would the power still be mine?
You understand me not.

What I am about to add, it will be easier to comprehend.

I bid thee banish from thy heart all thought of me, but as one whom the Future cries aloud to thee to avoid.

Glyndon, if thou acceptest his homage, will love thee till the tomb closes upon both.