“A family indeed, which sacrifices you to your elder brother.”
“It may be so, and therefore my task is all the greater. Whoever heard of virtue as something easy to practise?”
Norbert never remembered what an example of rebellion she had set.
“My heart and my conscience dictate the same course to me. The result must ever be fatal, when a young girl sets at defiance the rules and laws of society; and you would never care to look with respect on one upon whom others gazed with the eye of contempt.”
“What sort of an opinion have you of me, then?”
“I believe you to be a man, Norbert. Let us suppose that I fly with you, and that the next day I should hear that my father has been killed in a duel fought on my account; what then? Believe me, that when I tell you to fly by yourself, I give you the best advice in my power. You will forget me, I know; but what else can I hope for?”
“Forget you!” said Norbert angrily. “Can you forget me?”
His face was so close to hers that she felt the hot breath upon her cheek.
“Yes,” stammered she, with a violent effort, “I can.”
Norbert drew a pace back, that he might read her meaning more fully in her eyes.