He took it luxuriously because he believed in his fortune, a kind of natal star, the common heritage of the adventurous, that brought him his good things in time, in return for energetic strivings in a higher direction apart from his natural longings.
Fortune had delayed, he had wintered long.

All the sweeter was the breath of the young Spring.

That exquisite new sweetness robed Clotilde in the attributes of the person dreamed of for his mate; and deductively assuming her to possess them, he could not doubt his power of winning her.

Barriers are for those who cannot fly.

The barriers were palpable about a girl of noble Christian birth: so was the courage in her which would give her wings, he thought, coming to that judgement through the mixture of his knowledge of himself and his perusal of her exterior.
He saw that she could take an impression deeply enough to express it sincerely, and he counted on it, sympathetically endowing her with his courage to support the originality she was famed for.
They were interrupted between-whiles by weariful men running to Alvan for counsel on various matters--how to play their game, or the exact phrasing of some pregnant sentence current in politics or literature.
He satisfied them severally and shouldered them away, begging for peace that night.