id I not tell you just now that I was rich, Maximilian--too rich? I
possess nearly 50,000 livres in right of my mother; my grandfather and
my grandmother, the Marquis and Marquise de Saint-Meran, will leave
me as much, and M. Noirtier evidently intends making me his heir. My
brother Edward, who inherits nothing from his mother, will, therefore,
be poor in comparison with me. Now, if I had taken the veil, all this
fortune would have descended to my father, and, in reversion, to his
son."

"Ah, how strange it seems that such a young and beautiful woman should
be so avaricious."

"It is not for herself that she is so, but for her son, and what you
regard as a vice becomes almost a virtue when looked at in the light of
maternal love."

"But could you not compromise matters, and give up a portion of your
fortune to her son?"

"How could I make such a proposition, especially to a woman who always
professes to be so entirely disinterested?"

"Valentine, I have always regarded our love in the light of something
sacred; consequently, I have covered it with the veil of respect, and
hid it in the innermost recesses of my soul. No human being, not even my
sister, is aware of its existence. Valentine, will you permit me to make
a confidant of a friend and reveal to him the love I bear you?"

Valentine started. "A friend, Maximilian; and who is this friend? I
tremble to give my permission."

"Listen, Valentine. Have you never experienced for any one that sudden
and irresistible sympathy which made you feel as if the object of it had
been your old and familiar friend, though, in reality, it was the first
time you had ever met? Nay, further, have you never endeavored to recall
the time, place, and circumstances of your former intercourse, and
failing in this attempt, have almost believed that your spirits must
have held converse with each other in some state of being anterior to
the present, and that you are only now occupied in a reminiscence of the
past?"

"Yes."

"Well, that is precisely the feeling which I experienced when I first
saw that extraordinary man."

"Extraordinary, did you say?"

"Yes."

"You have known him for some time, then?"

"Scarcely longer than eight or ten days."

"And do you call a man your friend whom you have only known for eight
or ten days? Ah, Maximilian, I had hoped you set a higher value on the
title of friend."

"Your logic is most powerful, Valentine, but say what you will, I can
n