ay.
Not able to answer me, he kept gazing at it. He could not take his eyes
from it. He cried out excitedly that he had never seen a more beautiful
creature--had never before known what love was--it was now blazing up
in the depths of his heart. I jested about the extraordinary effect of
the picture on him--called him a second Kalaf, and congratulated him on
the fact that my good Angelica was not a Turandot. At last I told him
pretty clearly that at his time of life--for, though not exactly
elderly, he could not be said to be a very young man--this romantic way
of falling in love with a portrait rather astonished me. But he vowed
most vehemently--nay, with every mark of that passionate excitement,
almost verging on insanity, which belongs to his country--that he loved
Angelica inexpressibly, and, if he were not to be dashed into the
profoundest depths of despair, I must allow him to gain her affection
and her hand. It is for this that the Count has come here to our house.
He fancies he is certain that she is not ill-disposed to him, and he
yesterday laid his formal proposal before me. What do you think of the
affair?"

Madame von G---- could not explain why his latter words shot through
her being like some sudden shock. "Good heavens," she cried, "_that_
Count for our Angelica! that utter stranger!"

"Stranger!" echoed the Colonel with darkened brow; "the Count a
stranger! the man to whom I owe my honour, my freedom, nay, perhaps my
life! I know he is not quite so young as he has been, and perhaps is
not altogether suited to Angelica in point of age; but he is of high
lineage, and rich, very rich."

"And without asking Angelica," said Madame von G----. "Very likely she
may not have any such liking for him as he, in his fondness, imagines."

The Colonel started from his chair, and placed himself in front of her
with gleaming eyes. "Have I ever given you cause to imagine," he said,
"that I am one of those idiotic, tyrannical fathers who force their
daughters to marry against their inclinations, in a disgraceful way?
Spare me your absurd romanticisms and sentimentalities. Marriages may
be made without any such extraordinary, fanciful love at first sight,
and so forth. Angelica is all ears when he talks; she looks at him with
most kindly favour; she blushes like a rose when he kisses her hand,
which she willingly leaves in his. And that is how an innocent girl
expresses that inclination which truly blesses a man. There