Then she told faithfully all that had passed between her, Albert, and the stranger, since their last interview. She concealed none of the involuntary emotions she had experienced.
When she was done, the old man was silent long enough to trouble and annoy Consuelo. Persuaded by her, at last, to judge her conduct and sentiments, he said, "Your conduct is irreproachable: what, though, can I say of your sentiments? That sudden, insurmountable, violent affection called love, is a consequence of the good and bad instincts which God has permitted to penetrate or placed in our souls for our perfection or punishment. Bad human laws—which always oppose, in all things, the will of nature and the designs of Providence—often make an inspiration of God a crime, and curse the sentiment he has blessed, while they sanction infamous unions and base instincts. It is for us legislators—excepted from common-place laws, hidden constructors of a new society—to distinguish as much as possible legitimate and true love from a vain and guilty passion, that we may pronounce in the name of a purer and more generous law than that of the world, on the fate you merit. Will you be willing to commit it to our decision? Will you grant us the power to bind and loose?"
"You inspire me with absolute confidence; I have told you so, and I now repeat it."
"Well, Consuelo, we will discuss and deliberate on this question of the life and death of your love and that of Albert."
"And shall I not have a right to listen to the appeal of my conscience?"
"Yes, to enlighten us; when I have heard all, I will be your advocate. You must, however, relieve me of the seal of the confessional."
"What! you would not be the only confidant of my innocent sentiments, my agonies, my sufferings?"
"If you drew up a petition for divorce, and presented it to the tribunal, would you have no public complaints to make? This suffering will be spared to you. You have no complaints to make of any one? Is it not more pleasant to avow love than hatred?"
"Is it enough to feel a new passion, to have the right to abjure an old one?"
"You did not love Albert."