"
"But why, Louise, should we take refuge in such dissimulation, when
we are assured of your love?"
"You are assured of nothing! How can you be so artless as to believe
that these seven years have passed by and left no trace, and that we
feel exactly to-day as we did before this fearful war? When you have
opened the door and given liberty to the bird whose wings you have
cut, and whose wild heart you have tamed in a cage; when the captive
flies out into the fresh, free air of God, floats merrily along in
the midst of rejoicing, laughing Nature--will he, after years have
passed, will lie, if you shall please to wish once more to imprison
him, return willingly to his cage? I believe you would have to
entice him a long time--to whisper soft, loving, flattering words,
and place in the cage the rarest dainties before you could induce
him to yield up his golden freedom, and to receive you once more as
his lord and master. But if you seek to arrest him with railing and
threats--with wise and grave essays on duty and constancy--he will
swing himself on the lofty branch of a tree, so high that you cannot
follow, and whistle at you!"
"You are right, I believe," said Du Trouffle, thoughtfully.
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