Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-lytton — Read

Plus que vous ne pensez ce moment est terrible. / La Harpe, "Le Comte de Warwick," Act 3, sc. 5. / (The moment is more terrible than you think.)

For the first time since their union, Zanoni and Viola were separated, -- Zanoni went to Rome on important business. "It was," he said, "but for a few days; " and he went so suddenly that there was little time either for surprise or sorrow. But first parting is always more melancholy than it need be: it seems an interruption to the existence which Love shares with Love; it makes the heart feel what a void life will be when the last parting shall succeed, as succeed it must, the first. But Viola had a new companion; she was enjoying that most delicious novelty which ever renews the youth and dazzles the eyes of woman. As the mistress -- the wife -- she leans on another; from another are reflected her happiness, her being, -- as an orb that takes light from its sun. But now, in turn, as the mother, she is raised from dependence into power; it is another that leans on her, -- a star has sprung into space, to which she herself has become the sun!