But now! Compared with Angela, the excitements and ambitions of which the abbe had spoken did not weigh as a feather in the balance.

Without her life would be a dreary penance; with her a much worse place than Quipai would be an earthly paradise.
But would she have me?
The abbe seemed to think so.

Nevertheless, I felt by no means sure about it.

True, she appeared to like my company.

But that might be because I had so much to tell her that was strange and new; and though I had observed her narrowly, I had detected none of that charming self-consciousness, that tender confusion, those stolen glances, whereby the conventional lover gauges his mistress's feelings, and knows before he speaks that his love is returned.