my imagination, the more I fear it is not real, and I refuse to yield
to it lest my happiness be too soon destroyed. Ah, if I could only
hope that my happiness might endure, how feeble would be my
resistance? But will you not abuse my credulity? Will you not some day
punish me for having had too much confidence in you? At least is that
day very far off? Ah, if I could hope to gather perpetually the
fruits of the sacrifice I am making of my repose for your sake, I
confess it frankly, we would soon be in accord."




XX

The Half-way House to Love


The rival you have been given appears to me to be all the more
redoubtable, as he is the sort of a man I have been advising you to
be. I know the Chevalier; nobody is more competent than he to carry a
seduction to a successful conclusion. I am willing to wager anything
that his heart has never been touched. He makes advances to the
Countess in cold blood. You are lost. A lover as passionate as you
have appeared to be, makes a thousand blunders. The most favorable
designs would perish under your management. He permits everybody to
take the advantage of him on every occasion. Indeed, such is his
misfortune that his precipitation and his timidity injure his
prospects by turns.

A man who makes love for the pleasure he finds in it, profits by the