ASTOLAINE.
Father, I have come because a voice that I no longer can resist, commands me to. I told you all that happened in my soul when I met Palomides. He was not like other men…. To-day I come to ask your help … for I do not know what should be said to him…. I have become aware I cannot love him…. He has remained the same, and I alone have changed, or have not understood…. And since it is impossible for me to love, as I have dreamed of love, him I had chosen among all, it must be that my heart is shut to these things…. I know it to-day…. I shall look no more toward love; and you will see me living on about you without sadness and without unrest…. I feel that I am going to be happy….