Excerpt from The Lily of the Valley I yield to your desire. The woman whom we love better than she loves us possesses the privilege of making us forget the rules of common sense at every turn. In order to escape the frown upon your brow, and to banish the pouting expression of the lips that are saddened by the slightest denial, we traverse long distances miraculously, we shed our blood, we waste the future. To-day, you want my past; here it is. Only, remember this, Natalie: in obeying you, I have had to trample upon inviolate reluctance. But why suspect the sudden 'long reveries that attack me sometimes in the height of happiness? Why show a spoilt woman's dainty wrath about a silence Could you not laugh at the contradictions in my character without seeking the cause of them? Are there secrets in your heart which in order to win absolution, must needs have mine? In short, you have guessed it, Natalie, and perhaps it is best that you should know all. Yes, my life is overshadowed by a phantom, it ap pears vaguely at the least word that arouses it, it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.