“To hear you at all, Margaret, is music to my ears.” She was silent, and her fingers made a slight movement to detach themselves from his. “No, Margaret, do not withdraw them! Let me detain them thus--longer--for ever! My admiration of you has been too deeply felt not to have been too clearly shown, Your genius is too dear to me now to suffer me to lose it. Margaret--dear Margaret!” She spoke not--her breathing became quick and hard. “You do not speak, let me hope that you are not angry with me?” “No, no!” she whispered faintly. He continued with more boldness, and while he spoke, his arm encircled her waist. “A blessed chance brought me to your village. I saw you and returned. I chose a disguise in which I might study you, and see how far the treasures of your mind confirmed the noble promise of your face. They have done more. Like him who finds the precious ore among the mountains, I can not part with you so found. I must tear you from the soil. I must bear you with me. You must be mine, Margaret--you must go with me where the world will see, and envy me my prize.” He pressed her to his bosom. She struggled slightly. “Do not, do not, Alfred Stevens, do not press me--do not keep me. You think too much of me. I am no treasure--alas! this is all deception. You can not--can not desire it?” “Do I not! Ah! Margaret, what else do I desire now? Do you think me only what I appear in Charlemont?” “No! no!” “I have the power of a name, Margaret, in my profession--among a numerous people--and that power is growing into wealth and sway. I am feared and honored, loved by some, almost worshipped by others; and what has led me from this sway, to linger among these hills--to waste hours so precious to ambition--to risk the influence which I had already secured--what, but a higher impulse--a dearer prospect--a treasure, Margaret, of equal beauty and genius.” Her face was hidden upon his bosom. He felt the beating of her heart against his hand. “If you have a genius for song, Margaret Cooper, I, too, am not without my boast. In my profession, men speak of my eloquence as that of a genius which has few equals, and no superior.” “I know it--it must be so!” “Move me not to boast, dear Margaret; it is in your ears only that I do so--and only to assure you that, in listening to my love, you do not yield to one utterly obscure, and wanting in claims, which, as yours must be finally, are already held to be established and worthy of the best admiration of the intelligent and wise. Do you hear me, Margaret?” “I do, I do! It must be as you say. But of love I have thought nothing. No, no! I know not, Alfred Stevens, if I love or not--if I can love.”