I prefer to die from love, than to live for friendship." "Comte!" "Oh! Madame," cried De Guiche, "the present is a moment for me, in which no other consideration and no other respect exist, than the consideration and respect of a man of honor towards the woman he worships.

Drive me away, curse me, denounce me, you will be perfectly right.

I have uttered complaints against you, but their bitterness has been owing to my passion for you; I have said I wish to die, and die I will.

If I lived, you would forget me; but dead, you would never forget me, I am sure." Henrietta, who was standing buried in thought, and nearly as agitated as De Guiche himself, turned aside her head as but a minute before he had turned aside his.

Then, after a moment's pause, she said, "And you love me, then, very much ?" "Madly; madly enough to die from it, whether you drive me from you, or whether you listen to me still." "It is a hopeless case," she said, in a playful manner; "a case which must be treated with soothing application.