Say not that it is not so! Permit me to remain in that happy belief! Permit me to go on loving you as I loved you from the first moment I beheld you.

Oh, let me hold fast to the thought: here is a blessed being who thinks of me, pities me, and has made me happy!" "Oh, Fanny!" exclaimed Flora, in a gentle, tremulous voice.

She really did pity the woman.
"Oh yes, yes! call me that!" cried Fanny, full of rapture, as she impetuously pressed Flora's hand to her heart.

She had never released it for an instant, as if she feared that the moment she let it go the blissful vision would vanish.
By way of guarantee, Flora pressed her beautiful lips to Fanny's forehead, and gently bade her, from henceforth, call her Flora and nothing else.

There was to be no more strangeness between them.