And the Vicomtesse, on her side, listening to the ring
of sincerity in Gaston's voice, while he told of his youthful
troubles, began to understand all that grown children of
five-and-twenty suffer from diffidence, when hard work has kept them
alike from corrupting influences and intercourse with men and women of
the world whose sophistical reasoning and experience destroys the fair
qualities of youth. Here was the ideal of a woman's dreams, a man
unspoiled as yet by the egoism of family or success, or by that narrow
selfishness which blights the first impulses of honor, devotion,
self-sacrifice, and high demands of self; all the flowers so soon
wither that enrich at first the life of delicate but strong emotions,
and keep alive the loyalty of the heart.
But these two, once launched forth into the vast of sentiment, went
far indeed in theory, sounding the depths in either soul, testing the
sincerity of their expressions; only, whereas Gaston's experiments
were made unconsciously, Mme. de Beauseant had a purpose in all that
she said. Bringing her natural and acquired subtlety to the work, she
sought to learn M. de Nueil's opinions by advancing, as far as she
could do so, views diametrically opposed to her own. So witty and so
gracious was she, so much herself with this stranger, with whom she
felt completely at ease, because she felt sure that they should never
meet again, that, after some delicious epigram of hers, Gaston
exclaimed unthinkingly:
"Oh! madame, how could any man have left you?"
The Vicomtesse was silent.
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