“Ah! do not deceive me; I trust in you, and it would be worse than murder to abuse so simple a faith as mine.”
“I am not deceiving you, dearest Esther.”
“But if you were to teach me the cabala, you would impart to me these holy names?”
“Certainly, but I cannot reveal them except to my successor. If I violate this command I should lose my knowledge; and this condition is well calculated to insure secrecy, is it not?”
“It is, indeed. Unhappy that I am, your successor will be, of course, Manon.”
“No, Manon is not fitted intellectually for such knowledge as this.”
“But you should fix on someone, for you are mortal after all. If you like, my father would give you the half of his immense fortune without your marrying me.”
“Esther! what is it that you have said? Do you think that to possess you would be a disagreeable condition in my eyes?”
After a happy day—I think I may call it the happiest of my life—I left the too charming Esther, and went home towards the evening.
Three or four days after, M. d’O—— came into Esther’s room, where he found us both calculating pyramids. I was teaching her to double, to triple, and to quadruple the cabalistic combinations. M. d’O—— strode into the room in a great hurry, striking his breast in a sort of ecstasy. We were surprised and almost frightened to see him so strangely excited, and rose to meet him, but he running up to us almost forced us to embrace him, which we did willingly.