friendship. If you refuse me, I shall be compelled to believe that you
are cruelly enjoying my misery, and that you have learned in the most
accursed school that the best way of preventing a young man from curing
himself of an amorous passion is to excite it constantly; but you must
agree with me that, to put such tyranny in practice, it is necessary to
hate the person it is practised upon, and, if that be so, I ought to call
upon my reason to give me the strength necessary to hate you likewise."

I went on speaking for a long time; Bellino did not answer, but he seemed
deeply moved. At last I told him that, in the fearful state to which I
was reduced by his resistance, I should be compelled to treat him without
any regard for his feelings, and find out the truth by force. He answered
with much warmth and dignity: "Recollect that you are not my master, that
I am in your hands, because I had faith in your promise, and that, if you
use violence, you will be guilty of murder. Order the postillion to stop,
I will get out of the carriage, and you may rely upon my not complaining
of your treatment."

Those few words were followed by a torrent of tears, a sight which I
never could resist. I felt myself moved in the inmost recesses of my
soul, and I almost thought that I had been wrong. I say almost, because,
had I been convinced of it, I would have thrown myself at his feet
entreating pardon; but, not feeling myself competent to stand in judgment
in my own cause, I satisfied myself by remaining dull and silent, and I
never uttered one word until we were only half a mile from Sinigaglia,
where I intended to take supper and to remain for the night. Having
fought long enough with my own feelings, I said to him;

"We might have spent a little time in Rimini like good friends, if you
had felt any friendship for me, for, with a little kind compliance, you