"I protested that that would never be the case with me.
"'And I asseverate that my heart never yet was weak enough to cherish a love which could have no hope of being a part of my life. I have struggled against love in sleepless nights, but it seemed to me as if the genius of my life rose up erectly and distinctly before me, and said--'If into your poor ruined life a sunny ray of happiness should fall, oh, then, open all your windows to it! And if it be only a short gleam of light that soon passes away, yet it will remain in your soul, full of consolation for the gloom into which the coming night plunges you. If misfortune be solemnly decreed to you by heaven and earth, if it hold you in an indissoluble spell, oh, then have courage to grasp happiness yourself; grasp that which heaven and earth would deny you. But intense love is bliss, bliss unutterable; its intensity is not measured by its lastingness--the moment is its watchword. In your arms, from your kisses I have felt what, until now, life could never give me; what only as the dream of the supreme was quickened in my soul. To every human being is granted one supreme moment--once birth and death--once the bliss of perfect love!"
"'My Giulia!' cried I, deeply stirred by her fervour.
"'Never, never can I be yours!' cried she, 'but we will meet again to say farewell! I live in the Princess Dolgia's villa! This evening come to the pavilion; here is the garden key. No one will see you; at that hour all is deserted, the Princess herself is from home; only few servants are left at the villa.'
"I kissed her lips and hands in wild devotion.
"The tempest, meanwhile, had receded farther down the lake; the moon stood amid the broken clouds, which raced in wild career around the summits of the Alps. Our bark glided softly over the now bright, now dark waves. This time Giulia showed me her villa. It was a splendid building, buried amongst flowers; it shone brightly in the moonlight.
"'There, on the left, is the pavilion,' said Giulia, as she designated a Turkish kiosque. Laurels and myrtles surrounded it; a red fir, also, from the far north, lent its shade.
"As we stepped on land, a man came out of the bushes on the shore, close to Giulia. I could not recognise his features; they were half enveloped in a kerchief.
"Annoyed at this obtrusion, I was about to send him away, but she restrained my interference with a slight movement of the hand. He spoke vehemently to her in Italian, but, in an to me, incomprehensible dialect. His gestures were somewhat menacing, so that I held myself in readiness to come to the assistance of my beloved one; but he withdrew quietly, apparently satisfied with Giulia's replies.
"She looked pale as she held out her hand, bidding me farewell for a short time.