I could not but secretly approve and admire the modest and courteous firmness with which you rejected my homage.

The more decidedly you repulsed me, the more I felt that you were worthy of my adoration.

Anger and admiration succeeded each other in my heart, and even in my most violent paroxysms of rage I always respected you.

I descried the angel in the woman, and bowed to the ascendency of a celestial purity.

Now I am happy and blessed indeed; for I have in you precisely what I needed, without knowing it--this pure affection, free from all earthly taint--unalterable--eternal.