"I am only a man and you are very beautiful.

No--don't take your little hands away.

I am quite calm now, and know how one should speak to angels." Reason, justice, rectitude--everything was urging Juliette to close her ears to the words of love, spoken by the man whom she had betrayed.

But who shall blame her for listening to the sweetest sound the ears of a woman can ever hear--the sound of the voice of the loved one in his first declaration of love?
She sat and listened, whilst he whispered to her those soft, endearing words, of which a strong man alone possesses the enchanting secret.
She sat and listened, whilst all around her was still.

Madame Deroulede, at the farther end of the room, was softly muttering a few prayers.
They were all alone these two in the mad and beautiful world, which man has created for himself--the world of romance--that world more wonderful than any heaven, where only those may enter who have learned the sweet lesson of love.