Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/229

 empire. I will not have any other for wife than you. You have all the distinction that I wish for in her who is to bear my name. The education you have received and the dignity of your heart place you on a level with the most exalted positions. But I mistrust myself too much to try to portray you to yourself, I can only love you. After having heard you yesterday I remembered those sentences which seem written for you:

“‘Made to attract all hearts and charm the eye, both gentle and intelligent, clever and rational, polished as if her life had been passed in courts, simple as the hermit who has never known the world, the fire of her soul is tempered by the divine modesty in her eyes.’

“I have felt the value of this beautiful soul which reveals itself in the slightest things about you. That is what gives me the courage to ask you, if you do not yet love anyone, to let me prove to you by my attentions and my conduct that I am worthy of you. It is a matter of life to me; you cannot doubt but that all my strength will be employed not only to please you, but still more to merit your esteem, which is equivalent to that of the whole earth. With this hope, Ursule, and if you will allow me to worship you in my heart, Nemours will be a paradise to me, and the most difficult undertakings will only afford me gratification which shall be ascribed to you as one ascribes all to God. Tell me then that I may call myself

“YOUR SAVINIEN.”

Ursule kissed this letter; then, after having read it again and clung to it with foolish emotion, she dressed herself to go and show it to her godfather.

“Mon Dieu! I had almost left without saying my prayers!” she said, returning to kneel at her priedieu.