 your generosity; when I
declare to you the embarrassments in which your presence involves me, will you
not release me from that oath? Reflect upon the danger of a discovery; upon the
opprobrium in which such an event would plunge me: reflect, that my honour and
reputation are at stake; and that my peace of mind depends on your compliance.
As yet, my heart is free; I shall separate from you with regret, but not with
despair. Stay here, and a few weeks will sacrifice my happiness on the altar of
your charms; you are but too interesting, too amiable! I should love you, I
should doat on you! my bosom would become the prey of desires, which honour and
my profession forbid me to gratify. If I resisted them, the impetuosity of my
wishes unsatisfied would drive me to madness: if I yielded to the temptation, I
should sacrifice to one moment of guilty pleasure, my reputation in this world,
my salvation in the next. To you, then, I fly for defence against myself.
Preserve me from losing the reward of thirty years of sufferings! preserve me
from becoming the victim of remorse! Your heart has already felt the anguish of
hopeless love: oh! then, if you really value me, spare mine that anguish! give
me back my promise; fly from these walls. Go, and you bear with you my warmest
prayers for your happiness, my friendship, my esteem, and admiration: stay, and
you become to me the source of danger, of sufferings, of despair. Answer me,
Matilda, what is your resolve?« She was silent. - »Will you not speak, Matilda?
Will you not name your choice?«
    »Cruel! cruel!« she exclaimed, wringing her hands in agony; »you know too
well that you offer me no choice: you know too well that I can have no will but
yours!«
    »I was not then deceived. Matilda's generosity equals my expectations.«
    »Yes; I will prove the truth of my affection by submitting to a decree which
cuts me to the very heart. Take back your promise. I will quit the monastery
this very day. I have a relation, abbess of a convent in Estramadura: to her
will I bend my steps, and shut myself from the world for ever. Yet tell me,
father, shall I bear your good wishes with me to my solitude? Will you sometimes
abstract your attention from heavenly objects to bestow a thought upon me?«
    »Ah! Matilda, I
