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204 we might take a lesson from the very earth on which we tread. All that is valuable and delightful lies upon its surface."

"You forget 'silver and gold, and heaps of shining stones.'"

"For which miserable wretches dig into its depth, and bring thence for the more fortunate. We might take a lesson from them. Let us penetrate beyond the green and flowery crust, and what do we find?—danger and darkness—that some precious things may be brought up, I grant you, but the seekers perish. I own I have not the interest of others sufficiently at heart to run any such risks. And now let me apply this image to human life. I am well content to take the courtesies, flatteries—falsehoods, if you will—which grow on the external of society. I wish not to dive into the depths of envy, hatred, and malice, that lie below. I never examine but in self-defence."

"I could not," replied Francesca, "be contented with a friend whose thoughts were concealed from me, or with a lover whose feelings I did not at least believe were all laid open to my knowledge."

"But I do not go about the world with such improbable expectations of love and friendship as you do. I expect from my lover, first, flattery;