There were other
insurmountable points on the mountain chain of circumstance that lay
between him and his heart's dearest wish. The Commodore's inherent
reverence for birth and breeding, and his comparative indifference to
brain, was one of them. The obstinate pride of Allan's undistinguished
and ambitious self was another.
Of all sorts of pride the sort that goes with inferiority, not of
person, or behaviour, or talents, but of mere social position, is the
most inveterate. This unreasonable feeling was the mightiest of all
the obstructions that, mountain-like, lay between them; but on its
rough sides--flowers on an arid rock--grew the yearning affections,
seemingly rootless, yet continuing to bloom in secret, scarce
discovered beauty. Of what use was it, he asked himself in bitterness,
to brood over these impassable barriers, to cultivate a faith in the
power of his own affection strong enough to remove them, to cherish
the vain imagination that this incomparably sweet girl and his own
plain self were made for each other, and that no earthly obstacle
could suffice to separate them? Upon his soul had fallen the edict of
society, "What man hath put asunder let no higher power join together!"
And so he hardened his heart and closed his eyes to the heavenly
vision of girlish beauty and purity that shone forever in the upper
skies of his consciousness, as clear as the star of evening, and
almost as far away.
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