Every evening, after your departure, I have no other thought.I wish to find the means of uniting yourself and me--in the eyes of God, not of the law--without offending the habits and prejudices of a world, in which it may suit us hereafter to live.Yes, my friend! when you know whose are the noble hands, that are to join ours together, who is to bless and glorify God in our union--a sacred union, that will leave us worthy and free--you will say, I am sure, that never purer hands could have been laid upon us.Forgive me, friend! all this is in earnest--yes, earnest as our love, earnest as our happiness.If my words seem to you strange, my thoughts unreasonable, tell it me, love! We will seek and find some better means, to reconcile that we owe to heaven, with what we owe to the world and to ourselves.It is said, that lovers are beside themselves,"
added the young lady, with a smile, "but I think that no creatures are more reasonable."
"When I hear you speak thus of our happiness," said Djalma, deeply moved, "with so much calm and earnest tenderness, I think I see a mother occupied with the future prospects of her darling child--trying to surround him with all that can make him strong, valiant, and generous--
trying to remove far from him all that is ignoble and unworthy.You ask me to tell you if your thoughts seem strange to me, Adrienne.You forget, that what makes my faith in our love, is my feeling exactly as you do.What offends you, offends me also; what disgusts you, disgusts me.Just now, when you cited to me the laws of this country, which respect in a woman not even a mother's right--I thought with pride of our barbarous countries, where woman, though a slave, is made free when she becomes a mother.No, no; such laws are not made either for you or me.
Is it not to prove your sacred respect for our love, to wish to raise it above the shameful servitude that would degrade it? You see, Adrienne, I have often heard said by the priests of my country, that there were beings inferior to the gods, but superior to every other creature.I did not believe those priests; but now I do." These last words were uttered, not in the tone of flattery, but with an accent of sincere conviction, and with that sort of passionate veneration and almost timid fervor, which mark the believer talking of his faith; but what is impossible to describe, is the ineffable harmony of these almost religious words, with the mild, deep tone of the young Oriental's voice--as well as the ardent expression of amorous melancholy, which gave an irresistible charm to his enchanting features.