The actress's face was still convulsed with the shock of her terror. Her lips were trembling and drawn back so as to show the teeth glittering. But she realized that she had nothing to fear. "What do you want with me?" she demanded. He had lost his temerity since he had dropped her hand. It was in a very gentle voice he said: "Madame, I beg and beseech you, let me say one word to you alone." "Rosalie," she ordered, after a moment's hesitation, "take a turn or two in the garden. Now speak, sir," and she remained standing on the step, leaving the gate half-way open, as it had been at the moment he had kissed her hand. He spoke in all the sincerity of his inmost heart: "All I have to say to you, Madame, is that you must not, you ought not, to repulse me, for I love you too well to live without you." She appeared to be searching in her memory. "Was it not you," she asked, "who sent me some verses?" He said it was, and she resumed: "You followed me one evening. It is not right, sir, not the right thing, to follow ladies in the street." "I only followed _you_, and that was because I could not help it." "You are very young." "Yes, but it was long ago I began to love you." "It came upon you all in a moment, did it not?" "Yes, when I saw you." "That is what I thought. You are inflammable, so it seems." "I do not know, Madame. I love you and I am very unhappy. I have lost the heart to live, and I cannot bear to die, for then I should not see you any more. Let me be near you sometimes. It must be so heavenly!" "But, sir, I know nothing about you." "That is my misfortune. But how _can_ I be a stranger for you? You are no stranger, no stranger in my eyes. I do not know any woman, for me there is no other woman in the world but you." And again he took her hand, which she let him kiss. Then: "It is all very pretty," she said, "but it is not an occupation, being in love. What are you? What do you do?" He answered frankly enough: "My father is in trade; he is looking out for a post for me."