Page:A Virgin Heart.pdf/222

218 self on what is perhaps an audacious intervention."

"And what about my father? He has agreed to our marriage."

"Your father lives a long way from Paris. He is kind and trustful. No doubt his friend promised him to make you happy, and he believed him."

"I believed him too. Alas! he had begun to make me happy already."

"Oh! his intentions weren't bad. M. Hervart is not a bad man. He is ﬁckle, inconstant, irresolute."

"I see that only too clearly."

"He's an egoist. All men are egoists, for that matter, but there are degrees. Is he capable of loving a woman whole-heartedly, capable of consecrating his life to weaving daily joys for her? And yet what could be a more perfect dream, when one meets in his path a creature who is worthy of it, one who draws to herself not only love but adoration!"

"I suppose that women like that are rare."

"Those who have known one and desert her are very guilty."

"Say rather that they are very much to be