Zanoni by Edward Bulwer-lytton

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!