wing out the high and ascetic ambition which had guided his life
thus far, and abandoning, or at least lowering it, to take in that other
part of which Cornelia was the incarnation. The prospect drove the blood
to his heart and left him pale. He would not entertain it yet. Had he
not promised himself to let this one night go by?

"It would be a very sweet happiness, if I were sure of finding it," said
he; and Cornelia, turning this answer over in her foolish heart, made a
great deal out of it, and was thankful for the darkness that veiled her
face. But Bressant was hardly far advanced enough in the art of
affection to make a graceful use of double meanings; and most likely
Cornelia might have spared herself the blush.

Nevertheless, the young man was more deeply involved than he suspected.
That magnetic sympathy could not otherwise have existed between him and
his companion. The music could not have sounded through her sense to
his, nor her whisper have penetrated the barrier of his infirmity,
unless something akin to love had been the interpreter and guide; and
not a one-sided something, either.

On they walked, with the feeling of intimacy and mutual contentment
growing stronger at every moment. The ground was full of ruts and
inequalities, and ever and anon a misstep or an overbalance would cause
them involuntarily to tighten their hold upon each other;
involuntarily, but with a secret sensation of pleasure that made them
hope there were more rough places farther on. They did their best to
keep up a desultory conversation, perhaps, because they wished to spare
each other the embarrassment which silence would have caused, in leaving
the pleasant condition of affairs without a veil. When this kind of
thing first begins to be realized between young people, the enjoyment
takes on a more delicate flavor from a pretended ignoring of it.

It is beautiful to imagine them thus placed in a situation to which both
were strangers, knowing not what new delight the next moment might bring
forth. There was an element of childlikeness and innocence about it, the
more pleasing to behold in proportion as they were elevated in mind or
organization above the average of mankind.

A woman who loves thinks first of the man who has her heart; while he,
as a general rule, is primarily concerned with himself. If Bressant
wished Cornelia to be happy and loving, it was in order that he himself
might thereby be incited to greater love and ha