The tongue even is not trusted with the
thoughts that are seething within: they begin and end in the voiceless
pulsations of your nature.
After a time--it seems a long time, but it is in truth a very short
time--you find who she is who is thus entrancing you. It is done most
carelessly. No creature could imagine that you felt any interest in the
accomplished sister--of your friend Dalton. Yet it is even she who has
thus beguiled you; and she is at least some ten years Dalton's senior,
and by even more years--your own!
It is singular enough, but it is true, that the affections of that
transition state from youth to manliness run toward the types of
maturity. The mind in its reaches toward strength and completeness
creates a heart-sympathy--which in its turn craves fulness. There is a
vanity too about the first steps of manly education, which is disposed
to underrate the innocence and unripened judgment of the other sex. Men
see the mistake as they grow older; for the judgment of a woman, in all
matters of the affections, ripens by ten years faster than a man's.
In place of any relentings on such score you are set on fire anew. The
stories of her accomplishments, and of her grace of conversation,
absolutely drive you mad.
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