burning words that
treacherously wrong the yet more ardent emotions which strive to find
an utterance in speech; I found, nevertheless, in the merest trifles
a channel through which my passionate love poured itself forth but the
more vehemently for this constraint, till every least occurrence came to
have an excessive importance.

"I beheld her, not for brief moments, but for whole hours. There were
pauses between my question and her answer, and long musings, when, with
the tones of her voice lingering in my ears, I sought to divine from
them the secret of her inmost thoughts; perhaps her fingers would
tremble as I gave her some object of which she had been in search, or
I would devise pretexts to lightly touch her dress or her hair, to take
her hand in mine, to compel her to speak more than she wished; all these
nothings were great events for me. Eyes and voice and gestures were
freighted with mysterious messages of love in hours of ecstasy like
these, and this was the only language permitted me by the quiet maidenly
reserve of the young girl before me. Her manner towards me underwent no
change; with me she was always as a sister with a brother; yet, as my
passion grew, and the contrast between her glances and mine, her words
and my utterance, became more striking, I felt at last that this timid
silence was the only means by which she could express her feelings.
Was she not always in the salon whenever I came? Did she not stay there
until my visit, expected and perhaps foreseen, was over? Did not this
mute tryst betray the secret of her innocent soul? Nay, whilst I spoke,
did she not listen with a pleasure which she could not hide?

"At last, no doubt, her parents grew impatient with this artless
behavior and sober love-making. I was almost as timid as their daughter,
and perhaps on this account found favor in their eyes. They regarded
me as a man worthy of their esteem. My old friend was taken into their
confidence; both father and mother spoke of me in the most flattering
terms; I had become their adopted son, and more especially they singled
out my moral principles for praise. In truth, I had found my youth
again; among these pure and religious surroundings early beliefs and
early faith came back to the man of thirty-two.

"The summer was drawing to a close. Affairs of some importance had
detained the family in Paris longer than their wont; but when September
came, and they were able to leave town at last for an