This smile made
Rodolphe pause. "Ah yes!" he went on, "you must suffer much from the
destitution to which exile has brought you. Oh, if you would make me
happy above all men, and consecrate my love, you would treat me as a
friend. Ought I not to be your friend?--My poor mother has left sixty
thousand francs of savings; take half."
Francesca looked steadily at him. This piercing gaze went to the
bottom of Rodolphe's soul.
"We want nothing; my work amply supplies our luxuries," she replied in
a grave voice.
"And can I endure that a Francesca should work?" cried he. "One day
you will return to your country and find all you left there." Again
the Italian girl looked at Rodolphe. "And you will then repay me what
you may have condescended to borrow," he added, with an expression
full of delicate feeling.
"Let us drop the subject," said she, with incomparable dignity of
gesture, expression, and attitude. "Make a splendid fortune, be one of
the remarkable men of your country; that is my desire. Fame is a
drawbridge which may serve to cross a deep gulf. Be ambitious if you
must. I believe you have great and powerful talents, but use them
rather for the happiness of mankind than to deserve me; you will be
all the greater in my eyes."
In the course of this conversation, which lasted two hours, Rodolphe
discovered that Francesca was an enthusiast for Liberal ideas, and for
that worship of liberty which had led to the three revolutions in
Naples, Piemont, and Spain.
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