But Fate has said, 'At the feet of that girl with the dark eyes and pale
proud face shall poor Lenoble of Cotenoir put down his heart.' Do you
know what I said to myself when I saw you first in the little parlour
yonder? Ah, no! How should you guess? 'She is there,' said I; 'behold
her! It is thy destiny, Lenoble, on which thou gazest!' And thou, love,
wert calm and voiceless as Fate. Quiet as the goddess of marble before
which the pagans offered their sacrifices, across whose cold knees they
laid their rich garments. I put my treasures in your hip, my love; my
heart, my hopes,--all the treasures I had to offer."
This was all very sweet, but there was a sting even mingled with that
sweetness. Diana told herself that love like this should only be offered
on the purest shrine; and when she remembered the many stains upon her
father's honour, it seemed to her that a part of the shame must needs
cleave to her.
"Gustave," she said presently, after an absent meditative mood, from
which her lover had vainly tried to beguile her, "does it not seem to you
that there is something foolish in this talk of love and confidence
between you and me; and that all your promises have been a little too
lightly made? What do you know of me? You see me sitting in my father's
room, and because my eyes happen to please you, or for some reason as
foolish as that, you ask me to be your wife.
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