, why
cannot I as easily fling far from you all that imprisons your life and
fetters your soul!

"You are beautiful!" I say to her. "You are beautiful! Do you know what
that means? Beauty is the source of happiness; and it is also the source
of goodness, forgiveness and indulgence! Your face, if you take pleasure
in looking at it, will teach you much better than I can what you must
be. It will make you kind and gentle and generous, if you have the wish
to be in perfect harmony with it. Thanks to your beauty, my Rose, you
will be able, if you have a true conception of its dignity, to achieve
one perfect moment in your life!"

Alas, she does not share my enthusiasm! I take her hand, I lead her
through the house, into all the rooms which she does not know. I keep on
hoping that, in a new mirror, in a different light, she will at last
catch sight of herself as she is and that she will weep for joy!...

Meanwhile, she accompanies me, serene and smiling, pleased above all at
my delight. In this way, we come to the last mirror; and my hopes are
frustrated. But, in truth, I am too much entranced with the vision which
she offers to my eyes to grieve at anything; and soon I am very much
inclined to think her admirable for not feeling what I should have felt
in her place. After disappointing me, the very excess of her coldness
captivates my interest; and my enthusiasm does not permit me to seek
commonplace or contemptible reasons for it.

When admiration fills a woman's soul, it becomes nothing but an immense
cup brimming with light, a flower penetrated by the noon-day sun until
the heat makes its perfume overpowering.

CHAPTER X

1

The shadows lengthen when the sun descends in the heavens; and those
which, in the broad light, enhance the brilliancy of all things now
overspread and gradually extinguish them. Thus do our anxieties increase
when our joy lessens; and those which made us smile in the plenitude of
our happiness before long make us weep....

She has lied to me! I am sure now that she has lied! What has she done?
What can she be hiding from me? I can imagine nothing that could kill
the interest which I take in her, but she has lied! I was certain of it
yesterday, after our talk, when I remembered her blushes and her
embarrassment. I wanted to write to her then and could not. Darkness has
fallen suddenly between her and me; and I no longer know to whom I am
speaking; I no longer know what soul hears me