The Count of Monte Cristo

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"Again you drive me to despair, Maximilian," said Valentine, "again you
plunge the dagger into the wound! What would you do, tell me, if your
sister listened to such a proposition?"

"Mademoiselle," replied Morrel with a bitter smile, "I am selfish--you
have already said so--and as a selfish man I think not of what others
would do in my situation, but of what I intend doing myself. I think
only that I have known you not a whole year. From the day I first saw
you, all my hopes of happiness have been in securing your affection. One
day you acknowledged that you loved me, and since that day my hope of
future happiness has rested on obtaining you, for to gain you would be
life to me. Now, I think no more; I say only that fortune has turned
against me--I had thought to gain heaven, and now I have lost it. It is
an every-day occurrence for a gambler to lose not only what he possesses
but also what he has not." Morrel pronounced these words with perfect
calmness; Valentine looked at him a moment with her large, scrutinizing
eyes, endeavoring not to let Morrel discover the grief which struggled