acquainted with his pursuits, his career--she fancied she found a
symmetry and harmony between the actual being and the breathing
genius--she imagined she understood what seemed dark and obscure to
others. He whom she had never seen grew to her a never-absent friend.
His ambition, his reputation, were to her like a possession of her own.
So at length, in the folly of her young romance, she wrote to him, and
dreaming of no discovery, anticipating no result, the habit once
indulged became to her that luxury which writing for the eye of the
world is to an author oppressed with the burthen of his own thoughts.
At length she saw him, and he did not destroy her illusion. She might
have recovered from the spell if she had found him ready at once to
worship at her shrine. The mixture of reserve and frankness--frankness
of language, reserve of manner--which belonged to Maltravers, piqued
her. Her vanity became the auxiliary to her imagination. At length
they met at Cleveland's house; their intercourse became more
unrestrained--their friendship was established, and she discovered that
she had wilfully implicated her happiness in indulging her dreams; yet
even then she believed that Maltravers loved her, despite his silence
upon the subject of love. His manner, his words bespoke his interest in
her, and his voice was ever soft when he spoke to women; for he had much
of the old chivalric respect and tenderness for the sex. What was
general it was natural that she should apply individually--she who had
walked the world but to fascinate and to conquer. It was probable that
her great wealth and social position imposed a check on the delicate
pride of Maltravers--she hoped so--she believed it--yet she felt her
danger, and her own pride at last took alarm. In such a moment she had
resumed the character of the unknown correspondent--she had written to
Maltravers--addressed her letter to his own house, and meant the next
day to have gone to London, and posted it there. In this letter she had
spoken of his visit to Cleveland, of his position with herself. She