good-natured mockery I brought down
upon myself by my shrinking dislike of women.

"Fie on thee, Fabio!" he would cry. "Thou wilt not taste life till thou
hast sipped the nectar from a pair of rose-red lips--thou shalt not
guess the riddle of the stars till thou hast gazed deep down into the
fathomless glory of a maiden's eyes--thou canst not know delight till
thou hast clasped eager arms round a coy waist and heard the beating of
a passionate heart against thine own! A truce to thy musty volumes!
Believe it, those ancient and sorrowful philosophers had no manhood in
them--their blood was water--and their slanders against women were but
the pettish utterances of their own deserved disappointments. Those who
miss the chief prize of life would fain persuade others that it is not
worth having. What, man! Thou, with a ready wit, a glancing eye, a gay
smile, a supple form, thou wilt not enter the lists of love? What says
Voltaire of the blind god?

"'Qui que tu sois voila ton maitre,
Il fut--il est--ou il doit etre!'"

When my friend spoke thus I smiled, but answered nothing. His arguments
failed to convince me. Yet I loved to hear him talk--his voice was
mellow as the note of a thrush, and his eyes had an eloquence greater
than all speech. I loved him--God knows! unselfishly, sincerely--with
that rare tenderness sometimes felt by schoolboys for one another, but
seldom experienced by grown men. I was happy in his society, as he,
indeed, appeared to be in mine. We passed most of our time together,
he, like myself, having been bereaved of his parents in early youth,
and therefore left to shape out his own course of life as suited his
particular fancy. He chose art as a profession, and, though a fairly
successful painter, was as poor as I was rich. I remedied this neglect
of fortune for him in various ways with due forethought and
delicacy--and gave him as many commissions as I possibly could without
rousing his suspicion or wounding his pride. For he possessed a strong
attraction for me--we had much the same tastes, we shared the same
sympathies, in short, I desired nothing better than his confidence and
companionship.

In this world no one, however harmless, is allowed to continue happy.
Fate--or caprice--cannot endure to see us monotonously at rest.
Something perfectly trivial--a look, a word, a touch, and lo! a long
chain of old associations is broken asunder, and the peace we deemed so
deep and lasting in f