'Place them on the shelf
beside you. This letter will answer in their stead.'
She obeyed me, and I then related the information I had received. 'This
ruin comes upon me through you.' She thought I was about to make a
vulgar complaint of extravagance, and for once flushed with anger.
'Remain entirely quiet,' I said. 'Hear me, but do not interrupt by word
or gesture. You do not yet understand me.'
Then I entered on all the particulars of my life; recounted my passion
for her; told how in my mad infatuation I had bargained for her; how in
my selfish exultation I had assumed all the freedoms of love, never
stopping to question my right to exercise them; how I was aroused from
my stupid content by accidentally witnessing her interview with Frank. I
related the feelings this excited within me; how for the first time I
learned the miserable and contemptible part I had acted; how I then
understood the sorrow of her life; how I would have crushed out my love
and given her to Frank, had there been any practicable way; how, knowing
that the only chance for happiness to both was in mutual love, I had
determined to gain hers by every act of devotion; how I sought to give
her the only relation to Frank she could properly bear--his
benefactress.
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