More than once, I have seen him almost
foam at the mouth as he denounced some political adversary from the
stump, and when one of these fits of passion seized him, he became as
ungovernable as a wild animal. You can scarcely realize that, now.
Sorrow has chastened him; trouble has softened him; I have nothing to
say against the Judge William Conway of to-day. He is a
self-sacrificing patriot, a gentleman of irreproachable courtesy, and
sweetness of character; but, as a young man, he was a firebrand, and I
think the fire is still unquenched beneath the gray hairs of the man of
seventy.
"Such were George and William Conway, when I knew them as young
men--the one mild, amiable, the soul of kindness and good-nature; the
other proud, honorable, but subject to fits of stormy passion, which
made all avoid him when the paroxysm was upon him.
"From this hasty description, you will understand why George was a
greater favorite with me than his brother. Our friendship was, indeed,
as close and tender as possible, and we passed our majority and
approached the age of twenty-five, without ever having had a moment's
interruption of our intimacy.
"Then, all at once, there appeared upon the stage, that cause of so
much happiness, woe, joy, grief, to mankind--a woman. To make a long
story short, George Conway and myself were so unfortunate as to become
attached to the same young lady, and very soon this sentiment amounted,
both on his part and on my own, to a wild and consuming passion.
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