"What a strange, one-sided life you must have had!" Cornelia remarked,
after they had walked a little way in silence. "Don't you think you'll
be happier for having found the other side out?"
Bressant started, and did not immediately reply. Thus far he had looked
upon this unexpected enlargement of feeling as merely a temporary
episode, after all; not any thing permanently to affect the
predetermined course and conduct of his life. The idea that it was to
round out and perfect his existence--that he was to find his highest
happiness in it--had never for a moment occurred to him. He did not
believe it possible that it could coexist with lofty aims and strenuous
effort; it was a weakness--a delicious one--but still a weakness, and
ultimately to be trampled under foot.
But Cornelia had taken the ground that it was the half of life--not only
that, but the better and more desirable half. For the first time it
dawned upon the young man, that he might be obliged to decide between
following out the high and ascetic ambition which had guided his life
thus far, and abandoning, or at least lowering it, to take in that other
part of which Cornelia was the incarnation. The prospect drove the blood
to his heart and left him pale. He would not entertain it yet.
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