As she
looked at her cousin, she thought that one of her evils was that the
capture of her affections so early by Walter had prevented her from
viewing Paul in any other light than that of an ingenious artist, and a
man of kindly sympathies, however much he was separated from mankind by
a theory of the world too esoteric for ordinary thought, and which yet,
at some time of man's life, forces its way amidst palpitations of fear
to every heart.
On reaching home she met there the notary, Mr. Ainslie, who informed
her, probably at the request of her father (for information of that kind
is seldom given gratuitously), that the will had been signed, and left
in the possession of the old man. Even this communication, so calculated
to shake from the heart so many of the sorrows of life, had no greater
effect upon her generous nature than to increase the responsibility of
fulfilling the condition upon which the inheritance was to be received
and held. If she had not been under the effect of an early prepossession
in favour of Walter, she might have doubted the sincerity of his
statement, as it came from his own mouth. Suspicion attached to every
word of it; but after the communication made by Paul, it was scarcely
possible for her to resist the conclusion that he had told her a
falsehood, and that he was aiming at the fortune, without the power or
the inclination to give her in return his love; nay, that he was
heartlessly sacrificing to his passion for gold two parties--the object
of his real love, and that of his feigned.
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