for your affection. Let your heart be appreciated by you yourself, Milady, and see if it is worth the lives of my fellow citizens."
"The balance is too unequal, Sir," said Adelaide. "What you want is too far from what it is necessary to sacrifice and although you might esteem me worth the sacrifice, I am not of the same opinion. From this moment I must cease to see you. I would have sworn not to betray the man I love, but I cannot make any such promises for a man who does not mean anything to me when this revelation might interest the fate of a city which is today my refuge. However, you may be tranquil, Anthony. You will be neither betrayed nor loved. I will remain in the most complete indifference with respect to you and the secret which cannot be mine."
Anthony wanted to hold Adelaide back, but it was in vain. She hastily went to her gondola and went home before Contarino even had time to work out in his mind whether he had acted badly or not.
Scarcely had twenty-four hours passed when Anthony wanted to see the one he loved, and a dinner, which his mother was giving, furnished the occasion. Adelaide was invited and on leaving the table, the conversation of the day before was renewed between the two of them.
"You require one thing of me, Milady," said Anthony to Adelaide, "a thing on which depends the fate of the Republic and of my family. Before, I tried to make it somewhat an exchange arrangement in which you were going to give me certain rights and privileges. I realize the mistake of such a procedure and now I am asking you for nothing at all. I am going to tell you the secret and I feel that it is entirely safe with you."
"One moment, Anthony," interrupted Adelaide, "what I have said has not been understood by you. I said that I could not give you any right over me because I am not free to give any such privileges. That was why I said I could promise you nothing in exchange for the secret. I have said, however, that if you showed yourself worthy of my friendship by putting the trust in me, I would consider your secret as sacred. That is all I have promised and that is all I can do."
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