What a riddle I am to myself! What shall I think myself? A fool? Or a knave? Heart, what a villain thou art! I love the angel, however much of a devil I may be. I love her! Yes, certainly! certainly I love her. I feel I would sacrifice a thousand lives for her, for her who sacrificed her virtue for me; I would do so,--this very moment without hesitation would I do so. And yet, yet--I am afraid to say it to myself--and yet--how shall I explain it? And yet I fear the moment which will make her mine for ever before the world. It cannot be avoided now, for her father is reconciled. Nor shall I be able to put it off for long. The delay has already drawn down painful reproaches enough upon me. But painful as they were, they were still more supportable to me than the melancholy thought of being fettered for life. But am I not so already? Certainly,--and with pleasure! Certainly I am already her prisoner. What is it I want, then? At present I am a prisoner, who is allowed to go about on parole; that is flattering! Why cannot the matter rest there? Why must I be put in chains and thus lack even the pitiable shadow of freedom? In chains? Quite so! Sara Sampson, my beloved! What bliss lies in these words! Sara Sampson, my wife! The half of the bliss is gone! and the other half--will go! Monster that I am! And with such thoughts shall I write to her father? Yet these are not my real thoughts, they are fancies! Cursed fancies, which have become natural to me through my dissolute life! I will free myself from them, or live no more. Scene III. Norton, Mellefont. MELLEFONT. You disturb me, Norton! NORTON. I beg your pardon, Sir (_withdrawing again_). MELLEFONT. No, no! Stay! It is just as well that you should disturb me. What do you want? NORTON. I have heard some very good news from Betty, and have come to wish you happiness. MELLEFONT. On the reconciliation with her father, I suppose you mean? I thank you. NORTON. So Heaven still means to make you happy. MELLEFONT. If it means to do so,--you see, Norton, I am just towards myself--it certainly does not mean it for my sake. NORTON. No, no; if you feel that, then it will be for your sake also. MELLEFONT. For my Sara's sake alone. If its vengeance, already armed, could spare the whole of a sinful city for the sake of a few just men, surely it can also bear with a sinner, when a soul in which it finds delight, is the sharer of his fate. NORTON. You speak with earnestness and feeling. But does not joy express itself differently from this? MELLEFONT.