Mel. True; but, like other representatives, nine times out of ten
he is a silent member. Ah, Pauline! not to the past, but to the future,
looks true nobility, and finds its blazon in posterity.

Pauline. You say this to please me, who have no ancestors;
but you, prince, must be proud of so illustrious a race!

Mel. No, no! I would not, were I fifty times a prince, be a pensioner
on the dead! I honor birth and ancestry when they are regarded
as the incentives to exertion, not the titledeeds to sloth!
I honor the laurels that overshadow the graves of our fathers;
it is our fathers I emulate, when I desire that beneath
the evergreen I myself have planted, my own ashes may repose!
Dearest! couldst thou but see with my eyes!

Pauline. I cannot forego pride when I look on thee, and think that thou
lovest me. Sweet Prince, tell me again of thy palace by the Lake
of Como; it is so pleasant to hear of thy splendors since thou
didst swear to me that they would be desolate without Pauline;
and when thou describest them, it is with a mocking lip and a noble scorn,
as if custom had made thee disdain greatness.

Mel. Nay, dearest, nay, if thou wouldst have me paint The home to which,
could love fulfil its prayers, This hand would lead thee, listen!*--
A deep vale

(* The reader will observe that Melnotte evades the request of Pauline.
He proceeds to describe a home, which be does not say he possesses,
but to which he would lead her, "could Love fulfil its prayers."
This caution is intended as a reply to a sagacious critic who censures