Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt: ...and her coming had apparently been a sudden impulse. Falling on Jeno's bosom and embracing him, she burst out with every sign of passionate emotion: "They want to part us!" "Who?" asked Jeno, no little disturbed by the other's manner. "They, they!" cried she, half choked with emotion, and bursting into tears, while she clasped her lover still more closely. Jeno's agitation increased; he became thoroughly alarmed. "For heaven's sake, Alfonsine," he begged, "do be cautious! Rideghvary is likely to come in at any moment, and what if he found you here?" Poor, kind-hearted youth, more careful of his sweetheart's good name than she herself! "Oh, he won't come yet," she made haste to assure him. "He and mamma are having a talk, and they have decided that you must return to your lodging at once, --that you are not to stay here a day longer. Oh, I know what that means; we are to be parted for ever." Jeno was on the point of fainting; each word from his sweetheart's lips struck him with dismay. Meanwhile she continued her passionate outburst. "I will not be separated from you!" she declared. "I am yours, yours for ever, yours in life and in death, your beloved, your wife, ready to sacrifice all for you, to suffer all!" At length she recovered her composure somewhat, and, lifting her tearful eyes to heaven, breathed a solemn vow: "To you, my friend, my lover, my all, to you or to the grave I dedicate myself. No power on earth shall tear me from you. For your sake I will leave kith and kin, abjure my faith, disown the mother who bore me, if they stand in the way of our happiness. For you I will go into exile and wander over the earth as a homeless beggar. Whatever your destiny, --be it life or be it death, --I will share it." The exaltation of the moment quite robbed Jeno of his last bit of reason. Was it all a dream, or was it reality, he asked himself. Neither one nor the other, dear Jeno, but an excellent bit of play-acting. Poor credulous youth! It is all a...
