You were no longer my rival; a brother cannot be jealous in that way of his own sister; and then, I was deeply grateful to you, for the respectful tenderness and deference I knew you had never failed to manifest towards her, when she was in a position that authorized great license.

You were the first to recognise her pure, exalted soul, while she was still only an obscure actress.

When she was poor, and despised by those who will cringe to her now, you offered to her--lowly as was her station--the most precious treasure that a nobleman can possess: the time-honoured name of his ancestors.

You would have made her your wife then--now that she is rich, and of high rank, she belongs to you of right.

The true, faithful lover of Isabelle, the actress, should be the honoured husband of the Comtesse de Lineuil." "But you forget," cried de Sigognac, in much agitation, "that she always absolutely refused me, though she knew that I was perfectly disinterested." "It was because of her supreme delicacy, her angelic susceptibility, and her noble spirit of self-sacrifice that she said that.