and I have not the strength to drive her away. I have only strength to
suffer."

"Oh! the insupportable _cry-baby_; oh! the silly, with his complaints,"
cried Cecily, in a sardonic and contemptuous tone; he does nothing but
groan and lament, and has been for ten days shut up alone with a young
woman, in a deserted house."

"But this woman despises me--is armed--is locked!" cried the notary in a
rage.

"Well! overcome the disdain of this woman; cause the dagger to fall from
her hand; constrain her to open this door, which separates you from her;
and that not by brutal force, which would fail."

"And how then?"

"By the force of your passion."

"Passion! and how can I inspire it?"

"Stop, you are but a notary bound up with a sexton; you make me pity you.
Am I to teach you your part? You are ugly; be terrible, your ugliness will
be forgotten. You are old; be energetic, your age will be overlooked. You
are repulsive; be threatening. Since you cannot be the noble horse, who
neighs proudly in the midst of his wives, be not, at least, the stupid
camel, who bends the knee and crooks the back; be a tiger. An old tiger,
who roars in the midst of carnage, has also its beauty; his tigress answers
him from the depths of the desert."