“Dear one, let there be no concealment either on my part or on yours.  I felt deeply grieved when I saw you leave me last night, and a little consideration made me understand all the evil which might accrue to you in consequence of what I had done.  With a nature like yours, such scenes might cause very dangerous disorders, and I have resolved not to do again anything by halves.  I thought that you went out to breathe the fresh air, and I hoped it would do you good.  I placed myself at my window, where I remained more than an hour without seeing alight in your room.  Sorry for what I had done, loving you more than ever, I was compelled, when my husband came to my room, to go to bed with the sad conviction that you had not come home.  This morning, M. F. sent an officer to tell you that he wanted to see you, and I heard the messenger inform him that you were not yet up, and that you had come home very late.  I felt my heart swell with sorrow.  I am not jealous, dearest, for I know that you cannot love anyone but me; I only felt afraid of some misfortune.  At last, this morning, when I heard you coming, I was happy, because I was ready to skew my repentance, but I looked at you, and you seemed a different man.  Now, I am still looking at you, and, in spite of myself, my soul reads upon your countenance that you are guilty, that you have outraged my love.  Tell me at once, dearest, if I am mistaken; if you have deceived me, say so openly.  Do not be unfaithful to love and to truth.  Knowing that I was the cause of it, I should never forgive my self, but there is an excuse for you in my heart, in my whole being.”

More than once, in the course of my life, I have found myself under the painful necessity of telling falsehoods to the woman I loved; but in this case, after so true, so touching an appeal, how could I be otherwise than sincere?  I felt myself sufficiently debased by my crime, and I could not degrade myself still more by falsehood.  I was so far from being disposed to such a line of conduct that I could not speak, and I burst out crying.

“What, my darling! you are weeping!  Your tears make me miserable.  You ought not to have shed any with me but tears of happiness and love.  Quick, my beloved, tell me whether you have made me wretched.  Tell me what fearful revenge you have taken on me, who would rather die than offend you.  If I have caused you any sorrow, it has been in the innocence of a loving and devoted heart.”

“My own darling angel, I never thought of revenge, for my heart, which can never cease to adore you, could never conceive such a dreadful idea.  It is against my own heart that my cowardly weakness has allured me to the commission of a crime which, for the remainder of my life, makes me unworthy of you.”

“Have you, then, given yourself to some wretched woman?”

“Yes, I have spent two hours in the vilest debauchery, and my soul was present only to be the witness of my sadness, of my remorse, of my unworthiness.”