this uniform tidiness pervaded the smallest details. Yet there was

something very attractive about their household ways. I had been used
to the pleasures of variety, to the luxury and stir of life in Paris;

it was only when I had overcome my first repugnance that I saw the
advantages of this existence; how it lent itself to continuity of

thought and to involuntarymeditation; how a life in which the heart
has undisturbed sway seems to widen and grow vast as the sea. It is

like the life of the cloister, where the outward surroundings never
vary, and thought is thus compelled to detach itself from outward

things and to turn to the infinite that lies within the soul!
"For a man as sincerely in love as I was, the silence and simplicity

of the life, the almost conventual regularity with which the same
things are done daily at the same hours, only deepened and

strengthened love. In that profound calm the interest attaching to the
least action, word, or gesture became immense. I learned to know that,

in the interchange of glances and in answering smiles, there lies an
eloquence and a variety of language far beyond the possibilities of

the most magnificent of spokenphrases; that when the expression of
the feelings is spontaneous and unforced, there is no idea, no joy nor

sorrow that cannot thus be communicated by hearts that understand each
other. How many times I have tried to set forth my soul in my eyes or

on my lips, compelled at once to speak and to be silent concerning my
passion; for the young girl who, in my presence, was always serene and

unconscious had not been informed of the reason of my constant visits;
her parents were determined that the most important decision of her

life should rest entirely with her. But does not the presence of our
beloved satisfy the utmost desire of passionate" target="_blank" title="a.易动情的；易怒的">passionate love? In that presence

do we not know the happiness of the Christian who stands before God?
If for me more than for any other it was torture to have no right to

give expression to the impulses of my heart, to force back into its
depths the burning words that treacherously wrong the yet more ardent

emotions which strive to find an utterance in speech; I found,
nevertheless, in the merest trifles a channel through which my

passionate" target="_blank" title="a.易动情的；易怒的">passionate love poured itself forth but the more vehemently for this
constraint, till every least occurrence came to have an excessive

importance.
"I beheld her, not for brief moments, but for whole hours. There were

pauses between my question and her answer, and long musings, when,
with the tones of her voice lingering in my ears, I sought to divine

from them the secret of her inmost thoughts; perhaps her fingers would
tremble as I gave her some object of which she had been in search, or

I would devise pretexts to lightly touch her dress or her hair, to
take her hand in mine, to compel her to speak more than she wished;

all these nothings were great events for me. Eyes and voice and
gestures were freighted with mysterious messages of love in hours of

ecstasy like these, and this was the only language permitted me by the
quiet maidenly reserve of the young girl before me. Her manner towards

me underwent no change; with me she was always as a sister with a
brother; yet, as my passion grew, and the contrast between her glances

and mine, her words and my utterance, became more striking, I felt at
last that this timid silence was the only means by which she could

express her feelings. Was she not always in the salon whenever I came?
Did she not stay there until my visit, expected and perhaps foreseen,

was over? Did not this mute tryst betray the secret of her innocent
soul? Nay, whilst I spoke, did she not listen with a pleasure which

she could not hide?
"At last, no doubt, her parents grew impatient with this artless

behavior and sober love-making. I was almost as timid as their
daughter, and perhaps on this account found favor in their eyes. They

regarded me as a man worthy of their esteem. My old friend was taken
into their confidence; both father and mother spoke of me in the most

flattering terms; I had become their adopted son, and more especially
they singled out my moral principles for praise. In truth, I had found

my youth again; among these pure and religious surroundings early
beliefs and early faith came back to the man of thirty-two.

"The summer was drawing to a close. Affairs of some importance had
detained the family in Paris longer than their wont; but when

September came, and they were able to leave town at last for an estate
in Auvergne, her father entreated me to spend a couple of months with

them in an old chateauhidden away among the mountains of Cantal. I
paused before accepting this friendly invitation. My hesitation

brought me the sweetest and most delightfulunconsciousconfession" target="_blank" title="n.招供；认错；交待">confession, a
revelation of the mysteries of a girlish heart. Evelina . . . DIEU!"

exclaimed Benassis; and he said no more for a time, wrapped in his own
thoughts.

"Pardon me, Captain Bluteau," he resumed, after a long pause. "For
twelve years I have not uttered the name that is always hovering in my

thoughts, that a voice calls in my hearing even when I sleep. Evelina
(since I have named her) raised her head with a strange quickness and

abruptness, for about all her movements there was an instinctive grace
and gentleness, and looked at me. There was no pride in her face, but

rather a wistfulanxiety. Then her color rose, and her eyelids fell;
it gave me an indescribable pleasure never felt before that they

should fall so slowly; I could only stammer out my reply in a
faltering voice. The emotion of my own heart made swift answer to

hers. She thanked me by a happy look, and I almost thought that there
were tears in her eyes. In that moment we had told each other

everything. So I went into the country with her family. Since the day
when our hearts had understood each other, nothing seemed to be as it

had been before; everything about us had acquired a fresh
significance.

"Love, indeed, is always the same, though our imagination determines
the shape that love must assume; like and unlike, therefore, is love

in every soul in which he dwells, and passion becomes a unique work in
which the soul expresses its sympathies. In the old trite saying that

love is a projection of self--an egoisme a deux--lies a profound
meaning known only to philosopher and poet; for it is ourself in truth

that we love in that other. Yet, though love manifests itself in such
different ways that no pair of lovers since the world began is like

any other pair before or since, they all express themselves after the
same fashion, and the same words are on the lips of every girl, even

of the most innocent, convent-bred maiden--the only difference lies in
the degree of imaginative charm in their ideas. But between Evelina

and other girls there was this difference, that where another would
have poured out her feelings quite naturally, Evelina regarded these

innocent confidences as a concession made to the stormy emotions which
had invaded the quiet sanctuary of her girlish soul. The constant

struggle between her heart and her principles gave to the least event
of her life, so peaceful in appearance, in reality so profoundly

agitated, a character of force very superior to the exaggerations of
young girls whose manners are early rendered false by the world about

them. All through the journey Evelina discovered beauty in the scenery
through which we passed, and spoke of it with admiration. When we

think that we may not give expression to the happiness which is given
to us by the presence of one we love, we pour out the secret gladness

that overflows our hearts upon inanimate things, investing them with
beauty in our happiness. The charm of the scenery which passed before

our eyes became in this way an interpreter between us, for in our
praises of the landscape we revealed to each other the secrets of our

love. Evelina's mother sometimes took a mischievous pleasure in
disconcerting her daughter.

" 'My dear child, you have been through this valley a score of times
without seeming to admire it!' she remarked after a somewhat too

enthusiastic phrase from Evelina.
" 'No doubt it was because I was not old enough to understand beauty

of this kind, mother.'
"Forgive me for dwelling on this trifle, which can have no charm for

you, captain; but the simple words brought me an indescribable joy,
which had its source in the glance directed towards me as she spoke.

So some village lighted by sunrise, some ivy-covered ruin which we had
seen together, memories of outward and visible things, served to

deepen and strengthen the impressions of our happiness; they seemed to
be landmarks on the way through which we were passing towards a bright

future that lay before us.
"We reached the chateau belonging to her family, where I spent about

six weeks, the only time in my life during which Heaven has vouchsafed
complete happiness to me. I enjoyed pleasures unknown to town-dwellers

--all the happiness which two lovers find in living beneath the same
roof, an anticipation of the life they will spend together. To stroll

through the fields, to be alone together at times if we wished it, to
look over an old water-mill, to sit beneath a tree in some lovely glen

among the hills, the lovers' talks, the sweet confidences drawn forth