Madmen have warned those who were dearest to them
to fly from their sight, lest in spite of themselves an irreparable
injury be inflicted. And so I urge you to continue avoiding me, to
cast behind not even a single glance of pity, lest in spite of your
pride, in spite of my reason, I should bend all my power to the one
object of winning you."
This calamity, it may be supposed, was not quite so great and horrible
to the mind of the young lady as it was in the excited imagination of
her lover. "I do not understand you," she said quietly. "What is it
you wish to ask of me?"
"Only this: that you will never think of me with the slightest degree
of kindness; that you will drop me from your acquaintance; that you
will forget that I ever existed."
"Very well;" her tones were even quieter than before, and a great deal
colder! "I promise never to think any more of you than I do at this
moment." And all the time she was crying with inward tears, "O,
darling, darling, as though I could think any more of you than I do
now! As though I could, as though I could!"
"Thank you," said Edward, "you are removing a terrible temptation from
my way, and helping to make me stronger and less ignoble than I am.
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