"I had put on a new dress expressly to please you; you did not come;
where were you?"

"But--"

"I did not know where. I went to Madame d'Espard's; you were not
there."

"But--"

"That evening at the Opera, I watched the balcony; every time a door
opened my heart was beating!"

"But--"

"What an evening I had! You don't reflect on such tempests of the
heart."

"But--"

"Life is shortened by such emotions."

"But--"

"Well, what?" she said.

"You are right; life is shortened by them," said Nathan, "and in a few
months you will utterly have consumed mine. Your unreasonable
reproaches drag my secret from me-- Ha! you say you are not loved; you
are loved too well."