Then she said: “You told me, Ralph, that I had two opposing destinies which struggle with one another and hurt me. One is a destiny of good fortune and gayety which is in accord with my true nature. The other is a destiny of violence, death, mourning, and catastrophe, a whole array of hostile forces which have persecuted me since I was a child and strove to drag me into a gulf into which I should have fallen ten times, if, ten times, you had not saved me. So after the two days at Juvains, and in spite of our love, Ralph, I was so cowardly that I had a horror of life. All that affair, which you considered marvelous and fairy-like, for me took on an aspect of darkness and hell. And isn’t this right, Ralph? Think of all I have endured! And think of all I have seen! ‘There is your kingdom’, you said. I don’t want it, Ralph. Between the past and me I only want one bond. If I have hidden myself away for some weeks it is because I had a confused feeling that I must escape from the grip of an affair of which I am the only survivor. After years, after centuries, it came to an end in me; and it is I who have the task of restoring to the light of day that which is hidden and benefiting by all its rarity and magnificence. I refuse. If I am the heir of its wealth and its splendors, I am also the heir of crimes and punishments of which I could not bear the weight.” “So that the will of the Marquess?” said Ralph, drawing the document from his pocket and handing it to her. She seized the will and tore it into fragments, which fluttered away in the wind. “I tell you again, Ralph. It is at an end. I shall not take the affair up again. I am too frightened lest it should bring about, once more, other crimes and other punishments. I am not a heroine.” “What are you, then?” “A woman who loves, Ralph—a woman who loves and who has remade her life—remade it for love and nothing but love.” “Lady with the green eyes,” he said. “It’s a very serious thing to take a pledge like that!” “Serious for me, but not for you. Be sure that if I offer you my life, I want no more of yours than you can give me. You will maintain around you this mystery which pleases you. You will never have to defend it against me. I take you just as you are; and you are the noblest and most fascinating thing I have ever met. I only ask one thing of you—to love me as long as you can.” “For ever, Aurelie.” “No, Ralph: you are not the man to love for ever, nor even, alas! for very long. But however short a time it lasts, I shall have known such happiness that I shall have no right to complain. And I shall not complain. Till this evening. Come to the Theater Royal, you will find a box waiting for you there.” They parted. That evening Ralph went to the Theater Royal. They were playing “La Vie de Bohême” with a young singer newly engaged in the part of Mimi, Lucie Gautier. Lucie Gautier was Aurelie.