In one word, then, I say of action and of indolence, grant the same ills to both, and to action there is the readier escape or the nobler consolation." Vane shrugged his shoulders.

"Ah, my dear friend," said he, tapping his snuff-box with benevolent superiority, "you are much younger than I am!" But these conversations, which Trevylyan and Vane often held together, dull as I fear this specimen must seem to the reader, had an inexpressible charm for Gertrude.

She loved the lofty and generous vein of philosophy which Trevylyan embraced, and which, while it suited his ardent nature, contrasted a demeanour commonly hard and cold to all but herself.

And young and tender as she was, his ambition infused its spirit into her fine imagination, and that passion for enterprise which belongs inseparably to romance.

She loved to muse over his future lot, and in fancy to share its toils and to exult in its triumphs.