Page:Edgar Huntly, or The Sleep Walker.djvu/57

 no other light than that of brother and sister. I was not unapprised of her views: I saw that their union was impossible. I was near enough to judge of the character of Clarice. My youth and intellectual constitution made me peculiarly susceptible to female charms. I was her playfellow in childhood, and her associate in studies and amusements at a maturer age. This situation might have been suspected of a dangerous tendency; this tendency, however, was obviated by motives of which I was for a long time scarcely conscious.

"I was habituated to consider the distinctions of rank as indelible: the obstructions that existed to any wish that I might form, were like those of time and space, and as, in their own nature, insuperable.

"Such was the state of things previous to our setting out upon our travels. Clarice was indirectly included in our correspondence: my letters were open to her inspection; and I was sometimes honoured with a few complimentary lines under her own hand. On returning to my ancient abode, I was once more exposed to those sinister influences which absence had at least suspended. Various suitors had, meanwhile, been rejected: their character, for the most part, had been such as to account for her, refusal, without resorting to the supposition of a lurking or unavowed attachment.

"On our meeting, she greeted me in a respectful but dignified manner: observers could discover in it nothing not corresponding to that difference of fortune which subsisted between us: if her joy on that occasion had in it some portion of tenderness, the softness of her temper, and the peculiar circumstances in which we had been placed, being considered, the most rigid censor could find no occasion for blame or suspicion.

"A year passed away, but not without my attention being solicited by something new and inexplicable in my own sensations. At first I was not aware of their true cause; but the gradual progress of my feelings left me not long in doubt as to their origin. I was alarmed at the discovery; but my courage did not suddenly desert me. My hopes seemed to be extinguished the moment that I distinctly perceived the point to which they led. My mind