you will never love me as you love Louise. I can see that in your
heart I shall never outweigh the interest inspired by a virtuous wife,
children, and a family circle. I should one day be deserted and become
the object of your bitter reflections. You would coldly say of me 'I
have had that woman!' That phrase I have heard pronounced by men with
the most insulting indifference. You see, monsieur, that I reason in
cold blood, and that I do not love you, because you never would be
able to love me."

"What must I do then to convince you of my love?" cried the baron,
fixing his gaze on the young woman.

She had never appeared to him so ravishingly beautiful as at that
moment, when her soft voice poured forth a torrent of words whose
sternness was belied by the grace of her gestures, by the pose of her
head and by her coquettish attitude.

"Oh, when I see Louise in possession of a lover," she replied, "when I
know that I am taking nothing away from her, and that she has nothing
to regret in losing your affection; when I am quite sure that you love
her no longer, and have obtained certain proof of your indifference
towards her--Oh, then I may listen to you!--These words must seem
odious to you," she continued in an earnest voice; "and so indeed they
are, but do not think that they have been pronounced by me. I am the
rigorous mathematician who makes his deductions from a preliminary
proposition. You are married, and do you deliberately set about making
love to some one else? I should be mad to give any encouragement to a
man who cannot be mine eternally."

"Demon!" exclaimed the husband. "Yes, you are a demon, and not a