“I remember, Lotte,” he said, “that I am human, that I have my passions and my failings, as others of my sex; but I hope I have, too, that broader view of life that makes virtue and worth the true nobility, and that I can appreciate it when it comes before me, as it has in you, Lotte. I have all my life--at least so long as I remember--lived in a sphere in which worth, and amiability, and virtue, shine most because they are surrounded by the worst temptations to which the higher qualifications can be subjected, and when they maintain themselves unsullied they are, in my eyes, the true and most fitting emblems of a real nobility. All I hope to find in woman I believe dwells in your clear soul, Lotte. I, feeling how rich you are in sterling virtues, ask no more, for you are wealthy enough in that. Well, what influence can the intemperate words of my father have hereafter upon my happiness? I shall ever love you. It shall be my study to retain your attachment; and, for the rest, it is all empty pomp and pride, which we can be very, very happy without.” “It cannot be, Mark!” exclaimed Lotte, with a deep sigh. “It cannot be?” echoed Mark, as though he had not heard aright. “No; it must not be,” she said plaintively, but yet very firmly. “We must part, Mark. Oh! believe me grateful for your kindly expressed thoughts, and for the tender preference so dear, so very dear to my heart, which you have evinced for me. Believe that to have been your wife, Mark, would to me have proved the greatest felicity I can imagine on earth. Yet I cannot consent, even to secure my own happiness, to sow dissension in the hearts of others. I could not look at times, Mark, upon your brow, clouded sometimes by thoughts of home and those dwelling there, without feeling how deeply I have erred in causing strife to rise up between you and them.” “Lotte, Lotte, do not drive me to distraction and despair!” cried Mark, passionately. “The world is wide: we will remove from the scene of my father’s pride and selfishness to some brighter land. I know many spots; surrounded by the clear blue waters of the vast Pacific, where we can settle down unfettered by the paltry worldly distinctions which agitate my father’s breast, and mindful only of that love which makes each to the other a world of treasure.” Lotte’s eyes swam in tears.