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"It is now high time!" said Joseph Ribas, one day, as, coming from
Natalie, he entered the boudoir of Count Alexis Orloff. "Now, your
excellency, the right moment has come! You must show yourself, or this
curious child will consume herself with a longing that has changed her
blood to fire! She thinks of nothing but you; with open eyes she dreams
of you, and without the least suspicion that any one is listening to
her, she speaks to you, ah, with what modest tenderness and with what
humble devotion! I tell you, your excellency, you are highly blessed.
There is no child more innocent, no woman more glowing with love. And
she knows it not; no, she has not the least suspicion that she already
loves you with enthusiasm, and thirsts for your kisses as the rose for
the morning dew! She knows nothing of her love!"

"She shall learn something of it!" said Orloff, laughing. "It will be
a pleasant task to enlighten this little unknowing one as to her own
feelings. And I flatter myself I understand how to do that."

"Endeavor, above all things, your excellency, to realize the ideal she
bears in her heart. She expects to see nothing less than an Apollo,
whose radiant beauty will annihilate her as Jupiter did Semele!"

"Well, in that, I hope she has not deceived herself," responded Orloff,
with a self-satisfied glance into the mirror. "If I am not Jupiter, yet
they call me Hercules, and he, you know, was the son of Jupiter, and,
indeed, his handsomest son!"