d upon the degree of sympathy that subsists
between the two persons interested. Plato believed, and I believe with
him, in the existence of a spiritual antitype of the soul, so that
when we are born, there is something within us which, from the instant
we live and move, thirsts after its likeness. This propensity develops
itself with the development of our nature. The gratification of the
senses soon becomes a very small part of that profound and complicated
sentiment, which we call love. Love, on the contrary, is an universal
thirst for a communion, not merely of the senses, but of our whole
nature, intellectual, imaginative, and sensitive. He who finds his
antitype, enjoys a love perfect and enduring; time cannot change it,
distance cannot remove it; the sympathy is complete. He who loves an
object that approaches his antitype, is proportionately happy, the
sympathy is feeble or strong, as it may be. If men were properly
educated, and their faculties fully developed,' continued Herbert,
'the discovery of the antitype would be easy; and, when the day
arrives that it is a matter of course, the perfection of civilisation
will be attained.'

'I believe in Plato,' said Lord Cadurcis, 'and I think I have found my
antitype. His theory accounts for what I never could understand.'

CHAPTER VII.

In the course of the evening Lady Annabel requested Lord Cadurcis and
his cousin to take up their quarters at the villa. Independent of the
delight which such an invitation occasioned him, Cadurcis was doubly
gratified by its being given by her. It was indeed her unprompted
solicitation; for neither Herbert nor even Venetia, however much
they desired the arrangement, was anxious to appear eager for its
fulfilment. Desirous of pleasing her husband and her daughter; a
little penitent as to her previous treatment of Cadurcis, now that
time and strange events had combined to soften her feelings; and won
by his engaging demeanour towards herself, Lady Annabel had of mere
impulse resolved upon the act; and she was repaid by the general air
of gaiety and content which it diffused through the circle.

Few weeks indeed passed ere her ladyship taught herself even to
contemplate the possibility of an union between her daughter and
Lord Cadurcis. The change which had occurred in her own feelings and
position had in her estimation removed very considerable barriers to
such a result. It would not become her again to urge the peculiarity