"No more fitting time, no more fitting time," replied Professor Valeyon.
The old gentleman's heart was full; he shifted the reins to his right
hand, and laid his left upon Bressant's, which he pressed with much
feeling. Perhaps it was of bad omen thus to seal a bargain with the left
hand, but no misgivings of the sort troubled the professor. He felt more
at ease than at any time since his pupil first sprang up the steps of
the Parsonage-porch.
But Bressant, if he were a child in the world of the affections, was, in
other respects, a man of exceptional shrewdness and comprehensive
ability. Although he had never as yet turned his attention to business
matters, he had every faculty and instinct required to make a successful
business-man. When he found his own interests deeply at stake, he may
have had more than one motive for wishing to secure to himself a clear
field. But Professor Valeyon was still as simple-hearted a soul--as
quick to trust wherever his sympathies dictated--as ever in his younger
days.
Bressant did not intend to deceive him, but then he had no irrevocably
settled plans. He was not one of those who follow blindfold the
promptings of any principle, simply because it chances to be a lofty
one. Although passionate, and hot of blood, he could believe that the
greatest good might be made not inconsistent with the greatest comfort.
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