apparently that sort of sentimental familiarity which is sometimes seen
between a fair boy and a girl much older than himself; but the attraction
that drew them together was an indefinable instinct of their similarity
in many traits of their several characters,--the whelp leopard sported
fearlessly around the she-panther. Before Olivier's midnight conference
with his son, Gabriel had drawn close and closer to Lucretia, as an ally
against his father; for that father he cherished feelings which, beneath
the most docile obedience, concealed horror and hate, and something of
the ferocity of revenge. And if young Varney loved any one on earth
except himself, it was Lucretia Clavering. She had administered to his
ruling passions, which were for effect and display; she had devised the
dress which set off to the utmost his exterior, and gave it that
picturesque and artistic appearance which he had sighed for in his study
of the portraits of Titian and Vandyke. She supplied him (for in money
she was generous) with enough to gratify and forestall every boyish
caprice; and this liberality now turned against her, for it had increased
into a settled vice his natural taste for extravagance, and made all
other considerations subordinate to that of feeding his cupidity. She
praised his drawings, which, though self-taught, were indeed
extraordinary, predicted his fame as an artist, lifted him into
consequence amongst the guests by her notice and eulogies, and what,
perhaps, won him more than all, he felt that it was to her--to Dalibard's
desire to conceal before her his more cruel propensities--that he owed
his father's change from the most refined severity to the most paternal
gentleness.

And thus he had repaid her, as she expected, by a devotion which she
trusted to employ against her tutor himself, should the baffled aspirant
become the scheming rival and the secret foe. But now,--thoroughly aware
of the gravity of his father's objects, seeing before him the chance of a