ABSTRACT
ANGELO succeeded completely in his views; Montmorency not only yielded to his earnest desire, of being permitted to prolong his stay with him for a few days, but, when at the end of that indefinite period, Angelo spoke not of departing, Montmorency, though he conceived the propriety of the movement, could not compel himself to urge it. Spite of his systematic reserve, he began again to taste the charm of society, of conversing with a human being of his own sex, of a superior mind, of polished taste, of manners elegant and refined; sometimes he reproached himself for the irresistible pleasure which he took in the company of the being chance had thrown in his way. He feared lest he should cause him to deviate in his abhorrence of mankind, or bring him back to the slavish dependence of hanging upon others for some charm to enliven the vapidness of existence. ‘Yet surely,’ would he cry, ‘I cannot be deceived in this youth; but, if I am, what matter? I seek no friendship from him; I place no reliance, I expect no favor, what, if he be even a villain at heart, which I think improbable; circumstances will never place it in his power to make me a sufferer; the entertainment of his company I may use without danger, as from poison the chemist extracts a salutary medicine.’ But Montmorency did not consider, that confidence grows from association; that, from long indulgence in luxury, it becomes necessary; nor, from a view of relative situations, could he pierce into the future, or discern the probable arrival of a period in which he might bitterly repent having, in a single instance, deviated from the resolution he had formed, of never more suffering his heart to relax, or his opinion to vary, in favor of any human being whatever.
