Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/384

394 hers. She esteems him cordially, likes him as a brotherly friend, and would select him as a husband, for either three or four of her twelve female friends, who would suit him excellently, as he them.

These are always the last words when we talk together on the subject, and it must now be plainly spoken out. In the beginning of September, I shall leave Sorrento to continue my journey to various places around Naples, and afterwards go to Sicily, where I intend to spend the winter, in case I do not make a still longer journey. My summer-daughter will accompany me to Sicily, if she wishes to do so, but Hercules must not remain any longer with us. It would be unpardonable to risk further the peace of a noble mind. Psyché herself takes the same view, and is resolved very shortly to give him her definite answer, yet in such a manner as not to wound him.

“He will soon console himself,” she declares, “he is a Hercules, and a rich life lies before him. He will make his journey to the East, and soon forget me.”

I doubt as to the ease with which he will forget her; I have become acquainted with a deep sensibility in his heart, a necessity of loving which has not yet been satisfied, and which embraces “that child,” with the whole strength of his being. I know, and feel it; he will not easily console himself; he will never forget, but he is a man, he will do his part, and—travel to the East. It cannot be otherwise, and—perhaps it is best that it should be so;—oh, oh! How often is the egotist beloved when the noble-hearted is rejected!

August 30th.—But not this time! Every thing is