"Oh, how meanly you think of that noble soul! She had other reasons which I cannot discuss more particularly and indeed, Heinrich, she is an angel!"
"What answer did you make to her proposal?"
"I rejected it."
"There I see my own Cornelia."
"Oh, is this the first time you understand me? I think you ought to have done so before."
"You are right; you have already made greater sacrifices,--if it is a sacrifice you are making for me."
"Of course it is. I do not know whether I might not have accepted Ottilie's proposal if, after Veronica's death, I had been left alone with my heart full of philanthropic enthusiasm and without your love."
"In any case, you would have been committing a great piece of folly."
"According to your ideas, but not mine. You will never believe how much happiness the good we do to others can bestow; and yet you are not happy, although all your life you have lived only for yourself."
Heinrich sat with his eyes fixed upon the floor.