"Indeed you must not read it! Pray don't, Sibylla! You will be sorry for it afterwards."
"How do you know it is not a fit book?"
"Because I have read it."
"There! You have read it! And you would like to deny the pleasure to me! Don't say you are never selfish."
"Sibylla! What is fit for me to read may be most unfit for you. I read the book when I was a young man; I would not read it now. Is it Benoite's?" he inquired, seeing the name in the first page.
"Yes, it is."
Lionel closed the book. "Promise me, Sibylla, that you will not attempt to read more of it. Give it her back at once, and tell her to send it out of the house, or to keep it under lock and key while it remains within it."
Sibylla hesitated.
"Is it so very hard a promise?" he tenderly asked. "I would do a great deal more for you."
"Yes, Lionel, I will promise," she replied, a better feeling coming over her. "I will give it her back now. Benoite!"