“Poor child! ... poor angel!” he continued, “it would be strange indeed if I took any other attitude than this before you.” And he was about to kneel at my feet, when I eagerly prevented him.
“Do not do that, I beg of you!” I exclaimed. “And say, if you like, that I am a child, but do not call me an angel.... Oh! no, never say anything so far from the truth! Listen to me, for I requested [pg 459] this interview only that you might know all—what is true as well as what is false.”
“What is true?” he said in a slight tone of surprise.
“Yes. Listen to me. I thank you for not having believed what ... what was said concerning me, for that, indeed, was false. I am, however, culpable, and it is right you should know it. Perhaps you will then change your mind, and think no more about me.”
He looked at me again, as if he would read the depths of my soul.
“Is it with this design,” he said, “that you speak so frankly?”
I knew not what reply to make, for I no longer knew what I wished. I found a charm in the mingled tenderness and respect of which I so suddenly felt myself the object. Besides, I had suffered greatly from my long seclusion, and my heart involuntarily turned towards him who was trying to deliver me from it.... My fear and repugnance vanished beneath his sympathetic look.
“No,” I said at last, “it is not for that reason.”
“Then speak frankly,” he said, “and let me hear this important revelation, whatever it may be.”
“And will you promise solemnly never to reveal my secret?”