"No, Charlotte, our heart-strings are familiar with a greater harmony!" "Well, if it be so, let the strings resound with the harmony of united souls! Oh, my friend, if we separate, we will no longer be to each other what we now are. I will not complain, and will not unveil the anguish of my soul before you; and yet, Schiller, remain, I implore you! When my candle is brought in, I will no longer enjoy its light; all will still be dark around me, for the evening will no longer bring you, my friend!" "I can, and will be, your friend no longer, Charlotte, and therefore I am going! I will be all, or nothing! This suspension midway betwixt heaven and earth is destroying me! My soul glows with passion, and you inhale it with every breath of life. You have not the courage to face the truth!" "I say, with you, I will be all, or nothing," she exclaimed, passionately. "Truth and falsehood cannot exist together; and it would be acting a falsehood if I gave my heart unlimited freedom, while my hands are in chains! All, or nothing! Only no hypocrisy! I will freely acknowledge my love to the whole world, or I will cover it with the veil of duty and resignation. But I will not sin under cover of this veil! Oh, Schiller, our life until now was a bond of truth, and you wish to sever it. Fate sent you to me; moments of the purest delight were vouchsafed us; and is the cup of happiness to be dashed from our lips now?" Schiller did not reply at once, but bowed down over Charlotte's hand, and pressed it to his burning brow. "Above all," he said, in a low voice, "above all, I know that it is in the bloom of youth only that we truly live and feel. In youth, the soul is illumined with light and glory; and my heart tells me that thou canst never dim its longing." "'Thou,' you say," she whispered softly, "then I will also say 'thou!' Truthfulness knows no 'you!' The blessed are called 'thou!'[12] It is a seal which unites closely, and therefore we will impress it upon our holy and eternal union!" She threw her arms around Schiller's neck--he was still kneeling at her feet--and pressed a kiss on his forehead. He embraced her yet more tenderly, and pressed impassioned kisses upon her brow, her cheeks, and her trembling lips. "Farewell, thou only one, farewell!" "Oh, Frederick," she sobbed, "was this thy parting kiss?" "Yes, Charlotte, I must go! But you will be present with me in my every thought." "And yet you go, Frederick?" "Destiny so ordains, and I must obey! The world demands of me the use of my talent--I demand of the world its favor." "And when you have achieved this favor," she said, plaintively, "then you will no longer care for love, or me!" "You should not say so, Charlotte, for you do not believe it," said Schiller, angrily. "Why these painful words? I lose all in you, but you lose nothing in me! You are so wayward--ah, not like the woman I pictured to myself in the days of my youth."