"If I will not?
If I have resolved to fly from this life of shameful splendor, gilded falsehood, whitewashed crime ?" "Then I shall hold you in it by force," he cried, grasping her arm violently.

"And do you know how?
I will inform the man you love who you are, and, believe me, he will turn from you with contempt and loathing; he will not follow you into the paradise of solitude into which you would fain escape with him.

Listen, Leonore, and weigh my words.

We have gone too far for return ever to be possible, therefore we must press forward, steadily forward! Whoever has once sold himself to the devil can never hope to transform himself once more into an angel.

Therefore he must be on his guard against nothing so rigidly as repentance, moods of virtuous atonement! You are now suffering from such a mood; it is my duty to cure you of it, and I know the medicine which can heal.