other arose and grew and strengthened, till, I believe, like the fiends
in hell, our mutual hatred became our common punishment.

"No sooner had I returned to England than I found him here awaiting my
arrival. He favoured me with frequent visits and requests for money.
Although not possessed of any secret really important affecting my
character, he knew well that he was possessed of one important to my
quiet; and he availed himself to the utmost of my strong and deep
aversion even to the most delicate recurrence to my love to Gertrude and
its unhallowed and disastrous termination. At length, however, he wearied
me. I found that he was sinking into the very dregs and refuse of
society, and I could not longer brook the idea of enduring his
familiarity and feeding his vices.

"I pass over any detail of my own feelings, as well as my outward and
worldly history. Over my mind a great change had passed: I was no longer
torn by violent and contending passions; upon the tumultuous sea a dead
and heavy torpor had fallen; the very winds, necessary for health, had
ceased:--
"I slept on the abyss without a surge."

"One violent and engrossing passion is among the worst of all
immoralities, for it leaves the mind too stagnant and exhausted for those
activities and energies which constitute our real duties. However, now
that the tyrant feeling of my mind was removed, I endeavoured to shake
off the apathy it had produced, and return to the various occupations and
businesses of life. Whatever could divert me from my own dark memories,
or give a momentary motion to the stagnation of my mind, I grasped at
with the fondness and eagerness of a child. Thus, you found me
surrounding myself with luxuries which palled upon my taste the instant