Therefore Bettina, you may do whatever suits you; my love is no more.

You have at one blow given the death-stroke to the intense passion which was blossoming in my heart.

When I reached my room, after the ill-treatment I had experienced at Cordiani's hands, I felt for you nothing but hatred; that feeling soon merged into utter contempt, but that sensation itself was in time, when my mind recovered its balance, changed for a feeling of the deepest indifference, which again has given way when I saw what power there is in your mind.

I have now become your friend; I have conceived the greatest esteem for your cleverness.

I have been the dupe of it, but no matter; that talent of yours does exist, it is wonderful, divine, I admire it, I love it, and the highest homage I can render to it is, in my estimation, to foster for the possessor of it the purest feelings of friendship.