the same lineaments which bespoke a virtue bespoke also its neighbouring
vice; that with so much will there went stubborn obstinacy; that with
that power of grasp there would be the tenacity in adherence which
narrows, in astringing, the intellect; that a prejudice once conceived,
a passion once cherished, would resist all rational argument for
relinquishment. When men of this mould do relinquish prejudice or
passion, it is by their own impulse, their own sure conviction that what
they hold is worthless: then they do not yield it graciously; they fling
it from them in scorn, but not a scorn that consoles. That which they
thus wrench away had "grown a living part of themselves;" their own flesh
bleeds; the wound seldom or never heals. Such men rarely fail in the
achievement of what they covet, if the gods are neutral; but, adamant
against the world, they are vulnerable through their affections. Their
love is intense, but undemonstrative; their hatred implacable, but
unrevengeful,--too proud to revenge, too galled to pardon.

There stood Guy Darrell, to whom the bar had destined its highest
honours, to whom the senate had accorded its most rapturous cheers; and
the more you gazed on him as he there stood, the more perplexed became
the enigma,--how with a career sought with such energy, advanced with
such success, the man had abruptly subsided into a listless recluse, and
the career had been voluntarily resigned for a home without neighbours, a
hearth without children.

"I had no idea," said Lionel, as Darrell rode slowly away, soon lost from
sight amidst the thick foliage of summer trees,--"I had no idea that my
cousin was so young!"

"Oh, yes," said Mr. Fairthorn; "he is only a year older than I am!"