If, in three weeks, I say to you, 'Susie, I am certain that I love him,' will you allow me to go to him, myself, quite alone, and ask him if he will have me for his wife?
That is what you did with Richard.

Tell me, Susie, will you allow me ?" "Yes, I will allow you." Bettina embraced her sister, and murmured these words in her ear: "Thank you, mamma." "Mamma, mamma! It was thus that you used to call me when you were a child, when we were alone in the world together, when I used to undress you in our poor room in New York, when I held you in my arms, when I laid you in your little bed, when I sang you to sleep.

And since then, Bettina, I have had only one desire in the world, your happiness.

That is why I beg you to reflect well.

Do not answer me, do not let us talk any more of that.