if you knew, my love, what your love is to me: if you knew how dear and
sacred I hold your happiness--you would excuse, you would understand,
these generous superstitions of a loving and honest heart, which could
only see a fatal omen in forms degraded by falsehood and perjury. What I
wish, is, to attach you by love, to bind you in chains of happiness--and
to leave you free, that I may owe your constancy only to your affection."

Djalma had listened to the young girl with passionate attention. Proud
and generous himself, he admired this proud and generous character. After
a moment's meditative silence, he answered, in his sweet, sonorous voice,
in an almost solemn tone: "Like you, I hold in detestation, falsehood and
perjury. Like you, I think that man degrades himself, by accepting the
right of being a cowardly tyrant, even though resolved never to use the
power. Like you, I could not bear the thought, that I owed all I most
valued, not to your love alone, but to the eternal constraint of an
indissoluble bond. Like you, I believe there is no dignity but in
freedom. But you have said, that, for this great and holy love, you
demand a religious consecration; and if you reject vows, that you cannot
make without folly and perjury, are there then others, which your reason
and your heart approve?--Who will pronounce the required blessing? To
whom must these vows be spoken?"

"In a few days, my love, I believe I shall be able to tell you all. Every
evening, after your departure, I have no other thought. I wish to find
the means of uniting yourself and me--in the eyes of God, not of the
law--without offending the habits and prejudices of a world, in which it
may suit us hereafter to live. Yes, my friend! when you know whose are
the noble hands, that are to join ours together, who is to bless and
glorify God in our union--a sacred union, that will leave us worthy and
free--you will say, I am sure, that never purer hands could have been
laid upon us. Forgive me, friend! all this is in earnest--yes, earnest as
our love, earnest as our happiness. If my words seem to you strange, my
thoughts unreasonable, tell it me, love! We will seek and find some
better means, to reconcile that we owe to heaven, with what we owe to the
world and to ourselves. It is said, that lovers are beside themselves,"
added the young lady, with a smile, "but I think that no creatures are
more reasonable."

"When I hear you speak thus of our happiness," said