happy, and guessed that he had been chosen as the lesser of two evils.

One evening he tentatively suggested that I only married him to escape
the convent.

"I cannot deny it," was my grave reply.

My dear, it touched me to the heart to see the two great tears which
stood in his eyes. Never before had I experienced the shock of emotion
which a man can impart to us.

"Louis," I went on, as kindly as I could, "it rests entirely with you
whether this marriage of convenience becomes one to which I can give
my whole heart. The favor I am about to ask from you will demand
unselfishness on your part, far nobler than the servitude to which a
man's love, when sincere, is supposed to reduce him. The question is,
Can you rise to the height of friendship such as I understand it?

"Life gives us but one friend, and I wish to be yours. Friendship is
the bond between a pair of kindred souls, united in their strength,
and yet independent. Let us be friends and comrades to bear jointly
the burden of life. Leave me absolutely free. I would put no hindrance
in the way of your inspiring me with a love similar to your own; but I
am determined to be yours only of my own free gift. Create in me the
wish to give up my freedom, and at once I lay it at your feet.

"Infuse with passion, then, if you will, this friendship, and let the
voice of love disturb its calm. On my part I will do what I can to
bring my feelings into accord with yours. One thing, above all, I
would beg of you. Spare me the annoyances to which the strangeness of