Therefore, do thou continue to feel
secure as to this matter, and watch most carefully that thou lettest not
another know that which I, not witting it from thee or from another,
most surely have discovered from thine own face and from its changeful
seeming. But, if thou art still the victim of that folly by which I know
thou hast been enslaved, if thou art as prone now as erewhile to indulge
that feeling to which thou hast already given way, then know I right
well that I must leave thee to thy own devices, for bootless will be my
teachings and my warnings. Still, although this cruel tyrant, to whom in
thy youthful simplicity being taken by surprise thou hast yielded thy
freedom, appears to have deprived thee of understanding as well as of
liberty, I will put thee in mind of many things, and entreat thee to
fling off and banish wicked thoughts from thy chaste bosom, to quench
that unholy fire, and not to make thyself the thrall of unworthy hopes.
Now is the time to be strong in resistance; for whoso makes a stout
fight in the beginning roots out an unhallowed affection, and bears
securely the palm of victory; but whoso, with long and wishful fancies,
fosters it, will try too late to resist a yoke that has been submitted
to almost unresistingly."
"Alas!" I replied, "how far easier it is to say such things than to
lead them to any good result."
"Albeit they be not easy of fulfilment," she said, "yet are they
possible, and they are things that it beseems you to do.
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