son, feeling that
they are a mistake, is only more determined to experience them.
Alternately expanding himself as Sensibility demands, and making ironic
jests as his own nature and his father's teaching suggest, he acquires
the character of "un homme immoral, un homme peu sur," the last of which
expressions may be paralleled from the British repertory by "an
ill-regulated young man," or "a young man on whom you can never depend."

All this time Adolphe is not in love, and as the dominant teaching of
Sensibility lays it down that he ought to be, he feels that he is wrong.
"'Je veux etre aime,' me dis-je, et je regardai autour de moi. Je ne
voyais personne qui m'inspirait de l'amour; personne qui me parut
susceptible d'en prendre." In parallel case the ordinary man would
resign himself as easily as if he were in face of the two conditions of
having no appetite and no dinner ready. But this will not do for the
pupil of Sensibility. He must make what he does not find, and so Adolphe
pitches on the luckless Ellenore, who "me parut une conquete digne de
moi." To do Sensibility justice, it would not, at an earlier time, have
used language so crude as this, but it had come to it now. Here is the
portrait of the victim, drawn by her ten years younger lover.

Ellenore's wits were not above the ordinary, but her
thoughts were just, and her expression, simple as it was,
was sometimes striking by reason of the nobility and
elevation of the thought. She was full of prejudices, but
she was always prejudiced against her own interest. There
was nothing she set more value on than regularity of
conduct, precisely because her own conduct was
conventionally irregular.[411] She was very religious,
because religion rigidly condemned her mode of life. In
conversation she frowned on pleasantries which would have
seemed quite innocent to other women, because she feared
that her circumstances might encourage the use of such as
were not innocent. She would have liked to admit to her
society none but men of the highest rank and most
irreproachable reputation, because those women with whom she
shuddered at the thought of being classed usually tolerate
mixed society, and, giving up the hope of respect, seek only
amusement. In short, Ellenore and her destiny were at
daggers drawn; every word, every action of hers was a kind
of protest against her so