Ah! I know you
now. The first time I saw you thus, I was seized with a feeling of terror
of which I can give you no idea. I thought you were only a roue, that you
had deliberately deceived me by feigning a love you did not feel, and
that I saw you such as you really were. O my friend! I thought it was
time to die; what a night I passed! You do not know my life; you do not
know that I, who speak to you, have had an experience as terrible as
yours. Alas! life is sweet only to those who do not know life.
"You are not, my dear Octave, the only man I have loved. There is hidden
in my heart a fatal story that I wish you to know. My father destined me,
when I was quite young, for the only son of an old friend. They were
neighbors and each owned a little domain of almost equal value. The two
families saw each other every day and lived, so to speak, together. My
father died; my mother had been dead some time. I lived with an aunt whom
you know. A journey she was compelled to take, forced her to confide me
to the care of my future father-in-law. He called me his daughter and it
was so well known about the country that I was to marry his son that we
were allowed the greatest liberty together.
"That young man, whose name you need not know, appeared to love me. What
had been friendship from infancy, became love in time. He began to tell
me of the happiness that awaited us; he spoke of his impatience, I was
only one year younger than he; but he had made the acquaintance of a man
of dissipated habits who lived in the vicinity, a sort of adventurer, and
had listened to his evil suggestions.
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