Camille (La Dame aux Camilias)

I could not answer. Tears of gratitude and love filled my eyes, and I

flung myself into Marguerite's arms.

"I wanted," she continued, "to arrange everything without telling you,

pay all my debts, and take a new flat. In October we should have been

back in Paris, and all would have come out; but since Prudence has

told you all, you will have to agree beforehand, instead of agreeing

afterward. Do you love me enough for that?"

It was impossible to resist such devotion. I kissed her hands ardently,

and said: "I will do whatever you wish."

It was agreed that we should do as she had planned. Thereupon, she went

wild with delight; danced, sang, amused herself with calling up pictures

of her new flat in all its simplicity, and began to consult me as to

its position and arrangement. I saw how happy and proud she was of this

resolution, which seemed as if it would bring us into closer and closer

relationship, and I resolved to do my own share. In an instant I decided

the whole course of my life. I put my affairs in order, and made over

to Marguerite the income which had come to me from my mother, and which

seemed little enough in return for the sacrifice which I was accepting.

There remained the five thousand francs a year from my father; and,

whatever happened, I had always enough to live on. I did not tell

Marguerite what I had done, certain as I was that she would refuse the

gift. This income came from a mortgage of sixty thousand francs on a

house that I had never even seen. All that I knew was that every three

months my father's solicitor, an old friend of the family, handed over

to me seven hundred and fifty francs in return for my receipt.

The day when Marguerite and I came to Paris to look for a flat, I went

to this solicitor and asked him what had to be done in order to make

over this income to another person. The good man imagined I was ruined,

and questioned me as to the cause of my decision. As I knew that I

should be obliged, sooner or later, to say in whose favour I made this

transfer, I thought it best to tell him the truth at once. He made none

of the objections that his position as friend and solicitor authorized

him to make, and assured me that he would arrange the whole affair in

the best way possible. Naturally, I begged him to employ the greatest

discretion in regard to my father, and on leaving him I rejoined

Marguerite, who was waiting for me at Julie Duprat's, where she had gone

in preference to going to listen to the moralizings of Prudence.