"I love my son very dearly, and his happiness is more to me than what remains of my own.

If from the first you regard my proposition as an impossible one, I would spare him the pain of a humiliation,--I fear I could not save him from the rest, from a suffering that might drive him mad.

It is for this reason that I implore you, if you are able, to give me some answer, not that I may convey it to him, but in order that I may be guided in future.
He cannot forget you; but he has not seen you for six months.

To see you again if he must leave you for ever, would only inflict a fresh wound." He paused, while Corona slowly walked by his side.
"I do not see why I should conceal the truth, from you," she said at last.

"I cannot conceal it from myself.