"Is this cold argument, this weighing of issues, consistent with the stormy passion you professed so lately ?" "It is," I answered stoutly.

"It is because I love you more than I love myself that I would have you reflect ere you adventure your life upon such a broken raft as mine.

You are Paola Sforza di Santafior, and I--" "Enough of that," she interrupted me, rising.

She swept towards me, and before I knew it her hands were on my shoulders, her face upturned, and her blue eyes on mine, depriving me of all will and all resistance.
"Lazzaro," said she, and there was an intensity almost fierce in her low tones, "moments are flying and you stand here reasoning with me, and bidding me weigh what is already weighed for all time.

Will you wait until escape is rendered impossible, until we are discovered, before you will decide to save me, and to grasp with both hands this happiness of ours that is not twice offered in a lifetime ?" She was so close to me that I could almost feel the beating of her heart.