"Your influence," he said, "will be due to your natural goodness of
heart. Warmth of soul, ardour and perseverance in affection, these are
what are needed in family life, and these qualities make our defects
loved even by those who have to suffer from them most. We should
endeavour, therefore, to master ourselves out of love for those who
love us; but to propose to one's self a system of moderation in the
most intimate concerns of love and friendship would, in my opinion, be
a childish task, a work of egotism which would kill all affection, in
ourselves first, and soon afterwards in the others. I was speaking of
studied moderation only in the exercise of authority over the masses.
Now, should your ambition ever . . ."

"You believe, then," I said, without listening to the last part of his
speech, "that, such as I am, I might make a woman happy and force her to
love me, in spite of all my faults and the harm they cause?"

"O lovelorn brain!" he exclaimed. "How difficult it is to distract your
thoughts! . . . Well, if you wish to know, Bernard, I will tell you what
I think of your love-affair. The person you love so ardently loves you,
unless she is incapable of love or quite bereft of judgment."

I assured him that she was as much above all other women as the lion
is above the squirrel, the cedar above the hyssop, and with the help of
metaphors I succeeded in convincing him. Then he persuaded me to tell
him a few details, in order, as he said, that he might judge of my
position with regard to Edmee. I opened my heart without reserve, and
told him my history from beginning to end. At this time we were on the
outskirts of a beautiful forest in the last rays of the setting sun. The
park at Sainte-Severe, with its fine lordly oaks which had never known