But it was not so, I was yet young, Oh! far too young, nor was he dead to others; but I, most miserable, must never see or speak to him again.

I must fly from him with more earnestness than from my greatest enemy: in solitude or in cities I must never more behold him.

That consideration made me breathless with anguish, and impressing itself on my imagination I was unable for a time to follow up any train of ideas.

Ever after this, I thought, I would live in the most dreary seclusion.

I would retire to the Continent and become a nun; not for religion's sake, for I was not a Catholic, but that I might be for ever shut out from the world.