This was all. A great, deep love would have given his
life happiness and purpose; but it did not dawn for him. Was it
because he did not meet the right woman? Was it because he did not
come out of himself sufficiently? was he, as it were, too much walled
in by his indifference to discover, behind the reserve of maidenly
timidity, faint emotions by which his own feelings might have been
kindled? Enough, he passed woman by, without seeing in her aught save
a toy. By accident, or to be more accurate, through the jealousy of
another interest which believed itself threatened, he discovered a
cleverly woven intrigue to lure him into a marriage with a princess
who, though neither especially beautiful nor wealthy, was yet very
pretty, and this so roused his distrust that henceforth he saw in the
favour of matrons and in the smiles of young ladies only speculations
upon his revenue of two millions and his title of prince, and acquired
a positive abhorrence of the circles in which people marry.
Once he had a meeting which narrowly escaped making a deeper
impression.
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