'And I have had few temptations.

How do I know what you have suffered ?' 'Or done!' I said, almost rudely.
'Where a man has not lied, nor betrayed, nor sold himself or others,' she answered in a low tone, 'I think I can forgive all else.

I can better put up with force,' she added smiling sadly, 'than with fraud.' Ah, Dieu! I turned away my face that she might not see how pale it grew; that she might not guess how her words, meant in mercy, stabbed me to the heart.

And yet, then, for the first time, while viewing in all its depth and width the gulf which separated us, I was not hardened; I was not cast back upon myself.

Her gentleness, her pity, her humility softened me, while they convicted me.