At this moment he saw Antoinette as he had left her the evening previous, her face animated, her cheeks flushed, her countenance full of reproach, her eyes tearful.

She never had appeared to him so charming.
He believed himself so madly in love that he was inclined to mock a little at himself.

He teased in anticipation the joys that were in reserve for him; he revelled in thought of the day and the hour when this superb creature would be his, when he could view her as his own undisputed possession, and devour page after page, chapter after chapter, of this elegantly printed, richly bound book.
However, he was not the man to wholly absorb himself in such a reverie.
His thoughts travelled farther; in idea he embraced his entire future, which he fashioned out at pleasure.

He took leave of his sorrowful past as a blind man who by some miracle recovers his sight, parts from his dog and his staff--troublesome witnesses of evil days.

He had done with petty employments, with ungrateful toil, with humiliating servitude, with anxiety about the morrow, with the necessity for counting every sou, with meagre repasts, with sordid expedients, with sorrow, distress, and usuries; to all these he said farewell.