When she believed, however, that such heart
as he possessed was truly interested, she became as unapproachable
as the afternoon horizon, whose rich glow is seemingly near, but
can never be reached. While she recognized the genuineness of
his passion, she did not, as before intimated, regard it as a very
serious affair.
"Good dinners and fairer faces than mine will comfort him before
Christmas," she thought.
Few know themselves--their own capabilities of joy, suffering, or
achievement. As with Ida, Stanton was at a loss to understand the
changes in his own character. It was quite possible, therefore,
that Miss Burton should misunderstand him. Indeed he had, as yet,
but little place in her sad and preoccupied thoughts.
For some reason, however, Van Berg's society had for her a peculiar
fascination that she could not resist. She scarcely knew whether
she derived from it more of pleasure than of pain. She often asked
herself this question:
"Which were better for a traveller in the desert--to see a mirage,
or the sands only in all their barren reality?"
Her judgment said, the latter; but when the elusive mirage appeared,
she looked often with a longing wistfulness that might well suggest
a pilgrim that was athirst and famishing.
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