Shall I, who have languished for the pure delight which can
arise only from the interchange of soul with soul, and is endeared by
mutual confidence and complacency; shall I snatch under this disguise,
which belies my features and degrades my virtue, a casual possession of
faithless beauty, which I despise and hate? Let this be the portion of
those, that hate me without a cause; but let this be far from me!' At
this thought, he felt a sudden elation of mind; and the conscious
dignity of virtue, that in such a conflict was victorious, rendered him,
in this glorious moment, superior to misfortune: his gesture became
calm, and his countenance sedate; he considered the wrongs he suffered,
not as a sufferer, but as a judge; and he determined at once to discover
himself to ALMEIDA, and to reproach her with her crime. He remarked her
confusion without pity, as the effect not of grief but of guilt; and
fixing his eyes upon her, with the calm severity of a superior and
offended being, 'Such,' said he, 'is the benevolence of the Almighty to
the children of the dust, that our misfortunes are, like poisons,
antidotes to each other.'
ALMEIDA, whose faculties were now suspended by wonder and expectation,
looked earnestly at him, but continued silent.
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