Shy as your heart is, _it_ is lodged there--_I_ am lodged there; let the hours do their office--let time continue to draw me ever in more lively, ever in more insidious colours.' And then I had a vision of myself, and burst out laughing.
A likely thing, indeed, that a beggar-man, a private soldier, a prisoner in a yellow travesty, was to awake the interest of this fair girl! I would not despair; but I saw the game must be played fine and close.

It must be my policy to hold myself before her, always in a pathetic or pleasing attitude; never to alarm or startle her; to keep my own secret locked in my bosom like a story of disgrace, and let hers (if she could be induced to have one) grow at its own rate; to move just so fast, and not by a hair's-breadth any faster, than the inclination of her heart.

I was the man, and yet I was passive, tied by the foot in prison.

I could not go to her; I must cast a spell upon her at each visit, so that she should return to me; and this was a matter of nice management.

I had done it the last time--it seemed impossible she should not come again after our interview; and for the next I had speedily ripened a fresh plan.