Ha! ha!" "Oh! do not jest.

I did not laugh at you.

Jacintha, it is no laughing matter; I revere her as mortals revere the saints; I love her so that were I ever to lose all hope of her I would not live a day.

And now that you have told me she is poor and in sorrow, and I think of her walking so calm and gentle--always in black, Jacintha,--and her low courtesy to me whenever we met, and her sweet smile to me though her heart must be sad, oh! my heart yearns for her.

What can I do for her?
How shall I surround her with myself unseen--make her feel that a man's love waits upon her feet every step she takes--that a man's love floats in the air round that lovely head ?" Then descending to earth for a moment, "but I say, you promise not to betray me; come, secret for secret." "I will not tell a soul; on the honor of a woman," said Jacintha.
The form of protestation was quite new to Edouard, and not exactly the one his study of the ancient writers would have led him to select.