Ernest Maltravers, Book 8

que gradus vicin

d the acquaintance an

ection, in the choice of which, with the reason of manhood, ought, perhaps, to be blended the passion of youth. And he saw that few men were more capable than Maltravers of the true enjoyments of domestic life. He had long thought, also, that none were more calculated to sympathise with Ernest's views, and appreciate his peculiar character, than the gifted and brilliant Florence Lascelles. Cleve

e rank and the dower of Florence were such as would force Maltravers into a position in social life, which could not fail to make new exactions upon talents which Cleveland fancied were precisely those adapted rather to command than to serve. In Ferrers he recognised a man to /get/ into power-in Maltravers one by whom power, if ever attained, would be wielded with dignity, and exerted for great uses. Something, therefore, higher than mere covetousness for the vulgar interests of Maltravers made Cleveland desire to secure to him the heart and han

sat on the same bench in the gliding pleasure-boat. In the evenings, the younger guests, with the assistance of the neighbouring families, often got up a dance in a temporary pavilion built out of the dining-room

the guardsman was searching for a cor

there is no impropri

n that there

e-I did n

ou thi

n, I am glad, perhaps

e myste

love with. And I feel the danger is lessened, when I see you destroy any

. However, after that night she waltzed no more. She was unwell-she declared she w

ve had been found for it. The second evening after that commemorated by Ernest's candid rudeness, they chanced to meet in the conservatory, which was connected with the

an you will confess. You should shun these draughts. Yo

hat is the condition of public life-its hot and searing blaze puts out the lights of all lesser but not unholier affections.-Friends! Fate, that made Florenc

ut into the verandah, and by the trembling of her voice Ernes

Lascelles cannot fail to secure, however she may disdain it. Among the humblest of that class, suffer m

sunderstand me, I have no illness that stil

, mental and personal, to feel for her a strong and even affectionate interest-the very frankness with which he was accustomed to speak to her, and the many links of comm

but my conscience will not let me be an accomplice. I will turn

was averted from his, di

? Do you feel that there are, I do not say public, but private affecti

whom we vest the right and mastery over our own being-I know it not. But is it," he added, after a pause, "a rare privation?

olitude, with Nature-ah, no! While the mind alone is occupied, you may be contented with the pride of stoicism; but there

e conversation-and you must think me indeed a wild, romance-reading person, as th

e one in whose career you may perhaps find that noblest of all a

rs, she laid her hand with a winning frankness on his arm-" why now, should not we be to each other as if love, as you call it, were not a thing for earth-and friendship supplied its place?-there is no danger of our falling in lov

rence addressed to him, he, in words not

ng the hand that yet lay on

rought and holy-is to be squared, and cribbed, and maimed to the rule and measure of the world!

on the weak-its fawning upon the great-its ingratitude to benefactors-its sordid league with mediocrity against excellence. Yes, in pr

genius and our social conventionalities;-thoughts that from time to time break forth into the harbingers of vain and fruitless revolutions, impotent struggles against destiny;-thoughts that good and wise men would be slow to promulge and propagate, for they are of a fire which burns as well as brightens, and which spreads from heart to heart-as a spark spreads amidst flax;-thoughts which are rifest where natures are most high, but

e two persons,-young, handsome, and of opposite sexe