``Can you, the
accepted lover of Menie Gray, speak in that tone,
even though it be in jest!''
``Nay, Adam,'' said Richard, ``don't be angry
with me, because, being thus far successful, I rate
my good fortune not quite so rapturously as perhaps
you do, who have missed the luck of it. Your
philosophy should tell you, that the object which
we attain, or are sure of attaining, loses, perhaps,
even by that very certainty, a little of the extravagant
and ideal value, which attached to it while the
object of feverish hopes and aguish fears. But for
all that I cannot live without my sweet Menie. I
would wed her to-morrow with all my soul, without
thinking a minute on the clog which so early a
marriage would fasten on our heels. But to spend
two additional years in this infernal wilderness,
cruizing after crowns and half-crowns, when worse
men are making lacs and crores of rupees---It is a
sad falling of, Adam. Counsel me, my friend,---
can you not suggest some mode of getting off from
these two years of destined dulness?''
``Not I,'' replied Hartley, scarce repressing his
displeasure; ``and if I could induce Dr Gray to
dispense with so reasonable a condition, I should
be very sorry to do so.
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