He was careful not to go too far; though,
indeed, she usually had the best of the encounter. Of course his
knowledge and trained faculties far surpassed Sophie's simple
acquirements and modest learning; but she had a marvelous penetration in
seeing a fallacy, even when she knew not how to expose it; and she
mercilessly pricked many of the conceited bubbles of his understanding.
Doubtless she would have noticed the too prominent position which she
had come to occupy in the invalid's horizon, had not her eyes, so clear
to see every thing else, been blinded by the fact that he, also, was
grown to be of altogether too much importance to her. She never for a
moment imagined that any thing but an abstract and ideal scheme for
benefiting Bressant was actuating her in her intercourse with him. She
proposed to educate him in pure beliefs and true aspirations; to show
him that there was more in life than can be mathematically proved. But
that she could derive other than an immaterial and impersonal enjoyment
from it--oh, no!
This was quixotic and unpractical, if nothing worse. What other means of
imparting spiritual knowledge could a young girl like Sophie have, than
to exhibit to her pupil the structure and workings of her own soul? But
this could not be done with impunity; neither was Bressant a cup, to be
emptied and then refilled with a purer substance.
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