me from taking the rooms that I had chosen? Yes! I knew the miller's
daughter intuitively. Delirium possessed me; my eyes devoured her; my
heart beat as if it would burst out of my bosom. The old man approached
me; he nodded, and grinned, and pointed to her. Did he claim his parental
interest in her? Did he mean that she belonged to him? No! she belonged
to me. She might be his daughter. She was My Fate.

"I don't know what it was in the girl that took me by storm. Nothing in
her look or her manner expressed the slightest interest in me. That
famous "beauty" of mine which had worked such ravages in the hearts of
other young women, seemed not even to attract her notice. When her father
put his hand to his ear, and told her (as I guessed) that I was deaf,
there was no pity in her splendid brown eyes; they expressed a momentary
curiosity, and nothing more. Possibly she had a hard heart? or perhaps
she took a dislike to me, at first sight? It made no difference to my
mind, either way. Was she the most beautiful creature I had ever seen?
Not even that excuse was to be made for me. I have met with women of her
dark complexion who were, beyond dispute, her superiors in beauty, and
have looked at them with indifference. Add to this, that I am one of the
men whom women offend if they are not perfectly well-dressed. The
miller's daughter was badly dressed; her magnificent figure was profaned
by the wretchedly-made gown that she wore. I forgave the profanation. In
spite of the protest of my own better taste, I resigned myself to her
gown. Is it possible adequately to describe such infatuation as this?
Quite possible! I have only to acknowledge that I took the rooms at the
cottage--and there is the state of my mind, exposed without mercy!

"How will it end?"

CHAPTER VI