"Well, no, I cannot be quite certain,--you see no woman has ever
avoided him,--it will be quite a new experience for him, and a
strange one!" Her laughter rippled out musically on the air.
"Positively I do not think he will ever get over it!"
"I begin to understand," said Angela, "You wish to make this callous
man of the world realise that a woman may be beautiful, and
brilliant, and independent, and yet live a pure, good life amid
numerous temptations?"
"Yes,--I wish him to feel that all women are not to be led away by
flattery, or even by the desire to be loved, which is the hardest
temptation of all to resist! Nothing so hard as that, Angela!
Nothing so hard! I have often thought what a contemptible creature
Goethe's Gretchen was to allow herself to be tempted to ruin with a
box of jewels! Jewels! Worthless baubles! I would not cross the road
to look at the biggest diamond in the world! But to be loved! To
feel that you are all in all to one man out of the whole world! That
would be glorious! That I have never felt--that I shall never know!"
Angela looked at her sympathetically,--what a strange thing it was,
she thought, that this pretty creature, with her winsome, bright,
bewitching ways, should be craving for love, while she, Angela
Sovrani, was elected to the happiness of having the absolute
devotion of such an ideal lover as Florian Varillo!
"But I am becoming quite tragic in my remarks," went on Sylvie,
resuming her usual gaiety, "Melodramatic, as they say! If I go on in
this manner I shall qualify to be the next 'leading lady' to
Miraudin! Quelle honneur! Good-bye Angela;--I will not tell you
where I am going lest Fontenelle should ask you,--and then you would
have to commit yourself to a falsehood,--it is enough to say I have
left Paris.
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