He was told that it
would not do; and was not so told by the hard-pressed parent, but
by the young lady herself. And she had spoken so reasonably, that
he had yielded, and had walked away with the sudden feeling of a
vile return to his own mean belongings, to his lodgings, and his
income, which not a few ambitious young men have experienced. But
she had convinced him. Then had come the journey to Italy, and the
reader knows all the rest. He certainly had not derogated in
transferring his affections,--but it may be doubted whether in his
second love he had walked among the stars as in the first. A man
can hardly mount twice among the stars. But he had been as eager,--
and as true. And he had succeeded, without any flaw on his
conscience. It had been agreed, when that first disruption took
place, that he and Mabel should be friends; and, as to friends, he
had told her of his hopes. When first she had mingled something of
sarcasm in her congratulations, though it had annoyed him, it had
hardly made him unhappy. When she called him Romeo and spoke of
herself as Rosaline, he took her remark as indicating some
petulance rather than an enduring love.
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