"Why?"
"Because he loves you."
He did not notice how deeply this remark touched her. She stopped him reproachfully:
"Albert!"
"He confessed to me that he was devoted to you. Yes, he was the first to understand you. He realized that inner force which I had never been able to awaken. I am jealous of him, horribly jealous, not because I suspect you of ever having given him a word of encouragement—no suspicion could touch you when you were alone and abandoned—but because I do not acknowledge that another can know you and love you more than I do now."
"Albert," she murmured distractedly.
"I ought to fall on my knees before you, and at other times I long to clasp you to my heart and blot out those years which have blighted our love." Trembling, swayed by her exaltation, she repeated:
"Albert!"
Misunderstanding her manner, he raised his arms in despair:
"Ah! I make you afraid—I see it in your eyes. But I do not dare to touch even the tips of your fingers. Since I have returned here, even when we are side by side, there is an abyss between us which we do not know how to cross. Elizabeth, Elizabeth, I am so unhappy."