The first impulse of Madame de Guéran, when these impassioned words fell upon her ears, was to stem the torrent, but she had not the courage to interrupt the speaker, and, besides, to astonishment succeeded a conflict of emotions. What! was it this man, so calm, apparently, and so reserved, who spoke thus eloquently, and with such fervour expressed his ardent love? Had she, then, succeeded in imbuing with so burning a passion this man, held by all to be old before his time? Was she so wildly loved by this staid being, who was supposed to hold the very name of love in contempt? Suddenly she raised her eyes, till now lowered beneath his impassioned gaze, and, looking him full in the face, she said— "If, indeed, you feel all you say, why cannot you accompany me?" "I cannot go with you," was the reply, "because I have a mother, aged and feeble, who has no one but me in this world, and who will die if I leave her. Ah! but for her, nothing would have kept me back. You would then have had no need to tell me that those who suffer here could well do without my care; that other men, as disinterested as I, as devoted, as skilful, would care for them, cure them, save them. In the regions whither you asked me to go with you, there are the halt, the maimed, and the sick, lacking the blessings of science. I would have unfolded to them her secrets, I would have attempted cures to them impossible. With you at my side, I feel that I should have accomplished great deeds—Ah! how truly you divined, the other day, with subtle flattery, my tastes, my instincts, my aspirations! The life of a missionary has ever had a charm for me. To make civilisation, charity, the good, and the beautiful, a reality in those countries which do not even know them by name, to drive out before me barbarism, to bind up the wounded, to heal the sick, to cheer the broken-hearted, to open all hearts to the influence of love—that would indeed be a mission of glory!" He was no longer the same man; his voice was impassioned and full of feeling, his every gesture eloquent. His eye glistened, his very countenance seemed illumined. The metamorphosis we noticed in Madame de Guéran at the former interview, when she was carried away by her subject, was reproduced in him. He stopped for a moment, and then, in a calmer tone, resumed—