Page:Francesca Carrara 2.pdf/187

184 of the orange-trees, then in their first and sweetest blossoming!

But if the world without was changed, still more changed was the world within. Then, youth had been taught nothing by time; their spring was in its early luxuriance of breath and bloom; not a bud had fallen from the bough, not a leaf had withered. Now, many a hope had perished, and many a belief gone from them for ever. They had learnt to think as well as to feel; and thought is mournful. They remembered too keenly their pleasant credulity as to what to-morrow would bring forth, to dare indulge expectation of its pleasure; they had been disappointed once—so might they be again—for disappointment ever leaves fear behind.

There was something, too, in Arden's gloom which increased that of his companions. To that man pain was ever present; his brow never relaxed, his eye never brightened, and cheerfulness or anticipation seemed almost insults to him—they jarred with such utter mockery on his tone of mind. He felt that it was a duty, and had accelerated to the utmost this voyage to England; but the humiliation of the necessary confession to Lord Avonleigh was wormwood to his soul. It occupied him by day, it haunted him by night;