817페이지 중 553페이지

It was gratitude;--gratitude, not merely for having once loved

her, but for loving her still well enough to forgive all the

petulance and acrimony of her manner in rejecting him, and all

the unjust accusations accompanying her rejection. He who, she

had been persuaded, would avoid her as his greatest enemy,

seemed, on this accidental meeting, most eager to preserve the

acquaintance; and without any indelicate display of regard, or

any peculiarity of manner, where their two selves only were

concerned, was soliciting the good opinion of her friends, and

bent on making her known to his sister. Such a change in a man of

so much pride excited not only astonishment but gratitude--for to

love, ardent love, it must be attributed; and, as such, its

impression on her was of a sort to be encouraged, as by no means

unpleasing, though it could not be exactly defined.