[Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas Pere]@TWC D-Link book
Ten Years Later

CHAPTER XLI
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A young man is conscious of, and knows them; if he has a fancy, or a strong desire, and an absorbing passion, for a coquette, he cannot mistake her; a coquette may drive him out of his senses, but will never make him fall in love.

Love, such as I conceive it to be, is an incessant, complete, and perfect sacrifice; but it is not the sacrifice of one only of the two persons thus united.

It is the perfect abnegation of two who are desirous of blending their beings into one.

If ever I love, I shall implore my lover to leave me free and pure; I will tell him, and he will understand, that my heart was torn by my refusal, and he, in his love for me, aware of the magnitude of my sacrifice,--he, in his turn, I say, will store his devotion for me,--will respect me, and will not seek my ruin, to insult me when I shall have fallen, as you said just now, whilst uttering your blasphemies against love, such as I understand it.

That is my idea of love.


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