ceive how much I love you! It is impossible for you to have any conception of the degree in which this heart adores you!" at the same time raising her trembling hand, and pressing it with transport to his throbbing bosom, bursting sighs escaped him.
The impassioned energy accompanying his words and actions could not fail of alarming the timid girl: he fixed upon her his enraptured gaze; he contemplated her lovely countenance irradiated by the glowing hue of the surrounding lamps; he would have strained her to his bosom; but no thought, no emotion could he read there, save the chaste fear, the innocent terror which the extravagant ardour of his manner had awakened. Those pure rays of virtue illumining her countenance tended instantaneously to abate that phrensy of passion, that vehemence of feeling, the place, the time, the occasion had conspired to augment. The irregularity of his thoughts had vanished, his scattered reason was recalled, and he felt afraid of trusting himself any longer alone with the bewitching maid.
"Rosilia, my sweet girl," said he, "why are you thus fearful? are you uncomfortable at being this little time alone with me?" Tenderness and respect then exclusively filled his breast, feelings
