“Above all,” he said, in a low voice, “above all, I know that it is in the bloom of youth only that we truly live and feel. In youth, the soul is illumined with light and glory; and my heart tells me that thou canst never dim its longing.”
“‘Thou,’ you say,” she whispered softly, “then I will also say ‘thou!’ Truthfulness knows no ‘you!’ The blessed are called ‘thou!’[12] It is a seal which unites closely, and therefore we will impress it upon our holy and eternal union!”
She threw her arms around Schiller’s neck—he was still kneeling at her feet—and pressed a kiss on his forehead. He embraced her yet more tenderly, and pressed impassioned kisses upon her brow, her cheeks, and her trembling lips.
“Farewell, thou only one, farewell!”
“Oh, Frederick,” she sobbed, “was this thy parting kiss?”
“Yes, Charlotte, I must go! But you will be present with me in my every thought.”
“And yet you go, Frederick?”
“Destiny so ordains, and I must obey! The world demands of me the use of my talent—I demand of the world its favor.”
“And when you have achieved this favor,” she said, plaintively, “then you will no longer care for love, or me!”
“You should not say so, Charlotte, for you do not believe it,” said Schiller, angrily. “Why these painful words? I lose all in you, but you lose nothing in me! You are so wayward—ah, not like the woman I pictured to myself in the days of my youth.”