The generous scruples of Germain were overcome in an instant before this plain and devoted confession, a hopeful joy prevailed over his painful reflections.
"You love me?" he cried; "I believe you; your accent, your look,--everything proclaims it! I will not ask how I have merited such happiness, but I abandon myself to it blindly; my life, my whole life, will not suffice to pay my debt to you! Oh, I have greatly suffered already, but this moment effaces all!"
"Then you will be comforted at last? Oh, I was sure I should contrive to do so!" cried Rigolette, in a transport of joy.
"And it is in the midst of the horrors of a prison, and when all conspires to overwhelm me, that such happiness--"
Germain could not conclude. This thought reminded him of the reality of his position. His scruples, for a moment lost sight of, returned more severe than ever, and he said, with despair:
"But I am a prisoner--I am accused of robbery; I shall be sentenced--dishonoured, perhaps! And I cannot accept of your generous sacrifice--profit by your noble excitement. Oh, no, no; I am not such a villain as that!"
"I may be sentenced to several years' imprisonment."
"Well," replied Rigolette, with calmness and firmness, "they shall see that I am an honest girl, and they will not refuse to marry us in the prison chapel."
"But I may be put in prison at a distance from Paris."
"Once your wife, I will follow you and settle in the city where you may be. I shall find work there, and can see you every day."
"But I shall be disgraced in the eyes of all."
"You love me better than any one--don't you?"
"Then of what consequence is it? So far from considering you as disgraced in my eyes, I shall consider you as the victim of your own kind heart."
"But the world will accuse, condemn, calumniate your choice."
"The world! Are not you the world to me--I to you? So let it say as it may!"
"Well, quitting prison at length, my life will be precarious--miserable. Repulsed on all sides, I may, perhaps, find no employment, and then it is appalling to think! But if this corruption which besets me should seize on me in spite of myself, what a future for you!"
"You will never grow corrupted. No; for now you know that I love you, this thought will give you the power of resisting bad examples. You will reflect that if all repulse you when you quit your prison, your wife will receive you with love and gratitude, assured, as she will be, that you will still be an honest man. This language astonishes you, does it not? It astonishes even myself. I do not know whence I derive all I say to you; from the bottom of my soul, assuredly--and that must convince you! That is, if you do not reject an offer made you most unreservedly, if you do not desire to reject the love of a poor girl who has only--"