"In spite of this strange phenomenon, however, the young girl possessed
unbounded influence over me. I could not resist her fascinations, and
was as wax in her hands. She took a charming interest in all that
concerned me; painted the blissful future before us, in all the colors
of the rainbow; and declared that the devotion of her whole life would
not be sufficient to display 'her gratitude for my magnanimity in
wedding a poor girl who had nothing but her warm love to offer me.'
"'That is more than enough,' I said, charmed by her caressing voice. 'I
have few relations, and friends--you are all to me.'
"'And you to me!' she said. Then she added, with a sort of shudder,
'but suppose you were to die!'
"I laughed, and replied:--
"'You would be well provided for, and find yourself a gay young widow
with hundreds of beaux?'
"She looked at me reproachfully.
"'Do you think I would ever marry again?' she said. 'No! I would take
our marriage ring, and some little souvenir connected with you, leave
your fine house, and go with my brother to some poor home in a foreign
country, where the memory of our past happiness would be my solace!'
"I shook my head.
"'You will not do that,' I said, 'you will be the mistress of all my
fortune, after my death!'
"'Oh, no!' she exclaimed.
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