"Well, I think that he was wrong; I think that you are neither young nor old, and I shall always think that you are just right, because I shall always love you the way I love you now." "You don't know anything about it, Mario; it is said that one's heart changes with one's age." "That is not true with me. I still think my Mercedes young and lovable, and I have always loved her ever since I have been in the world. My father is old, so people say, but I enjoy myself more with him than with Clindor; and I don't see that age makes any difference between Master Lucilio and us. Do you get tired of me because I am younger?" "No, Mario; you are much more sensible and attractive than other boys of your age, and you already know more than I do, in the studies we have together." "Tell me, Lauriane, do you think me nicer than your other husband?" "I must not say that, Mario. He was my husband, and you are not." "Did you love him because he was your husband?" "I cannot say; I did not love him much when he was only my cousin; I thought him too wild and too fond of making a disturbance. But when they took us to the Reformed Church together and said to us: 'Now you are married; you will not see each other again for seven or eight years, but it is your duty to love each other;' I answered: 'Very well;' and I prayed for my husband every day, asking God to do me the favor to make me love him when I should see him again." "And you never saw him again! Were you grieved when he died?" "Yes, Mario. He was my cousin, and I wept for him." "And so if I should die, who am neither your cousin nor your husband, you wouldn't weep for me?" "You must not talk about dying, Mario," said Lauriane; "they say that it brings bad luck when one is young. I don't want you to die, and I say again that I love you dearly." "But you won't promise me when I shall be your husband?" "Why, Mario, what good would it do you to have me for your wife? You do not even know whether you will want to marry when you are old enough." "Yes, I do, Lauriane! I want nobody else for a wife but you, because you are good, and because you love everybody that I love. And as you say that a woman must love her husband, I know that you will always love me if we are married; but, if you marry someone else, you will never think about loving me. Then I shall be very unhappy, and it makes me want to cry just to think of it." "And now you are really crying!" said Lauriane, wiping his eyes with her handkerchief. "Come, come, Mario, I tell you that you are ill to-night, and that you must have a good supper and a good night's sleep; for you are worrying about troubles that are still to come, instead of rejoicing over those that you conquered last night." "What is past is past," said Mario; "what is to come--I don't know why I think so much about it to-day; but I do, and I cannot help it." "You have been too much wrought up!"