"We will leave England for ever after the marriage," he said to himself
sometimes. "We will make our home in some fair Italian city, where my
Paulina will be respected and admired as if she were a queen, as well
as the loveliest and sweetest of women."
If he asked Paulina where their future life was to be spent she always
replied to him in the same manner.
"Wherever you take me I shall be content," she said. "I can never be
grateful enough for your goodness; I can never repay the debt I owe
you. Let our future be your planning, not mine."
"And you have no wish, no fancy, that I can realize, Paulina?"
"None. Prom my earliest girlhood I have sighed for only one blessing--
peace! You have given me that. What more can I ask at your hands? Ah!
Douglas, I fear my love has already cost you too dearly. The world will
never forgive you for your choice; you, who might make so brilliant a
marriage!"
Her generous feelings once aroused, Paulina could be almost as noble as
her lover. Again and again she implored him to withdraw his promise--to
leave, and to forget her.
"Believe me, Douglas, our engagement is a mistake," she said. "Consider
this before it is too late. You are a proud man where honour is
concerned, and the past life of her whom you marry should be without
spot or blemish. It is not so with me. If I have not sinned as other
women have sinned, I have stooped to be the companion of gamblers and
roues; I have allowed my house to become the haunt of reckless and
dissipated men.
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