Alpha Book

"
"And you, Don Orsino, have you ever been loved--loved in earnest--by any
woman?"
"That is a very strange question, Madame."
"I am discreet. You may answer it safely."
"I have no doubt of that."
"But you will not? No--that is your right. But it would be kind of
you--I should be grateful if you would tell me--has any woman ever loved
you dearly?"
Orsino laughed, almost in spite of himself. He had little false pride.
"It is humiliating, Madame. But since you ask the question and require a
categorical answer, I will make my confession. I have never been loved.
But you will observe, as an extenuating circumstance, that I am young. I
do not give up all hope."
"No--you need not," said Maria Consuelo in a low voice, and again she
moved the shade of the lamp.
Though Orsino was by no means fatuous, he must have been blind if he had
not seen by this time that Madame d'Aranjuez was doing her best to make
him speak as he had formerly spoken to her, and to force him into a
declaration of love.


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