Page:Martin Faber - the story of a criminal (IA martinfaber00simmrich).pdf/26

16 be imposed upon:—and he—could he do less?—he assisted me in my lessons, he worked my sums, he helped my understanding in its deficiencies, and he reproved my improprieties—and I—I bored with and submitted patiently on most occasions to his reproofs. William Harding was a genius, and one of the first order; but his nervous susceptibilities left him perfectly hopeless and helpless. Collision with the world of man would have destroyed him; and, as it was, the excess of the imaginative quality which seemed to keep even pace with his sensibilities, left him continually struggling—and as continually to the injury and overthrow of the latter—with the calm suggestions of his judgment. He was a creature to be loved and pitied; and without entertaining, at this period, a single sentiment savoring of either of these,