But she feels no
confidence in the matter, so she worries and strives to find and
hold some ground on which to stand, interpreting the situation in
divers ways. She both opposes and defends her position, and
engages in the following argument: "With what intention should
Cliges say `I am altogether yours' unless it was love that
prompted him? What power can I have over him that he should
esteem me so highly as to make me the mistress of his heart? Is
he not more fair than I, and of higher rank than I? I see in it
naught but love, which could vouchsafe me such a boon. I, who
cannot escape its power, will prove by my own case that unless he
loved me he would never say that he was mine; unless love holds
him in its toils, Cliges could never say that he was mine any
more than I could say that I was altogether his unless love had
put me in his hands. For if he loves me not, at least he does
not fear me. I hope that love which gives me to him will in
return give him to me. But now I am sore dismayed because it is
so trite a word, and I may simply be deceived, for many there be
who in flattering terms will say even to a total stranger, `I and
all that I have are yours,' and they are more idle chatterers
than the jays. So I do not know what to think, for it might well
turn out that he said it just to flatter me.
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