Page:Teleny, or The Reverse of the Medal, t. I.djvu/157

 forget him.

"I was too eager, I endeavoured so hard to blot him at once from my mind, that my very anxiety prevented me from succeeding in doing so; I was so frightened not to be able to forget him, that that fear itself always brought his image to my mind."

"And your girl?"

"If I am not mistaken she felt for me what I felt for Teleny. She deemed it her bounden duty to avoid me, she even tried to despise me, to hate me, but she could not succeed in doing so."

"But why to hate you?"

"She seemed to understand that if she was still a virgin, it was simply because I cared so little for her; I had felt some pleasure with her, and that was more than enough for me.

"Had I loved and deflowered her, she would only have loved me more tenderly for the wound I had inflicted upon her.

"When I asked her if she was not grateful to me for having respected her maidenhood, she simply answered, 'No!' and it was a very