You, first and foremost, and then a dearly loved mother, from
whom he has been separated from his childhood."

"His mother! Has he, then, still a mother?"

"He has, but she has long believed him lost to her for ever. Imagine her
delight at seeing him again, cleared from the unworthy charge now
brought against him. You see I was right in saying that his greatest
troubles were over; do not mention his mother to him. I entrust you with
the secret, because you take so generous an interest in the fate of
Germain that it is but due to your devotedness that you should be
tranquillised as to his future fate."

"Oh, thank you, M. Rodolph! I promise you to guard the secret as
carefully as you could do."

Rigolette then proceeded with the perusal of Germain's letter; it
continued thus:

"'Should you deign, mademoiselle, to cast your eyes over these
notes, you will find that I have been unfortunate all my life,
always unhappy, except during the hours I have passed with you;
you will find sentiments I should never have ventured to express
by words fully revealed in a sort of memorandum, entitled "My
Only Days of Happiness." Nearly every evening, after quitting
you, I thus poured forth the cheering thoughts with which your
affection inspired me, and which only sweetened the bitterness
of a cup full even to overflowing. That which was but friendship
in you, was, in my breast, the purest, the sincerest love; but
of that love I have never spoken. No, I reserved its full
disclosure till the moment should arrive when I could be but as
an object of your sorrowing recollection. No, never would I have
sought to involve you in a destiny as thoroughly miserable as my
own. But, when your eye peruses these pages, there will be
nothing to fear from the power of my ill-starred fate. I shall
have been your faithful friend, your adoring lover, but I shall
no longer be dangerous to your future happiness in either sense.
I have but one last wish and desire, and I trust that you will
kindly accomplish it. I have witnessed the noble courage with
which you labour day by day, as well as the care and management
requisite to make your hard-earned gain suffice for your
moderate wants. Often have I shuddered at the bare idea of your
being reduced by illness (brought on, probably, by overattention
to your work) to a state too frightful to dwell upon. And i