"You cannot?"
She blushed lightly and frowned a shade. "I have told you, Florimond, how often I have had that pain before."
"And you told me also what they said."
His tones were now so grave that I could not bear to conjecture their significance. He went on.
"I do not consider, Maria, that for a person of genius it is any hardship to be discouraged from too much effort, especially when the effect will become enhanced by a matured experience."
"You are very unkind, Florimond."
Indeed, I thought so, too.
"I only care to please you."
"No, Maria, you had not a thought of me in writing."
"And yet you yourself gave me the first idea. But you are right; I wrote without reference to any one, and because I burned to do so."