"We must and shall attain them!" responded Paulo, with enthusiasm. "I
must fulfil this great task of my life, or die! Away, now, with all
wavering or hesitation! What must be, shall be! They shall not say of
the man who took compassion upon the deserted and threatened orphan and
raised her for his own egotistical wishes, and pusillanimously failed to
finish the work he began! No, no, history shall not so speak of me. It
shall at least represent me as a brave man capable of sacrificing his
heart and his life for the attainment of his higher ends! Seal these
letters, Cecil. They contain my last will, and my bequest to Natalie,
which I wish to place in her own hands. Ah, Cecil, I have been an
enthusiastic fool until this hour! I thought--alas, what did I not think
and dream!--I thought that all these plans and objects were not worth
so much as one sole smile of her lips and that if she would say to me
'I love thee,' this sweet word would not be too dearly purchased with an
imperial crown. Perhaps, ah, perhaps, I think so yet, but I will never
more suffer myself to be swayed by such thoughts. We must go--Natalie's
happiness demands it. And besides, she will not lack friends and
protectors.
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