Where
should they learn to contend with guile--to acquire cunning and
circumspection--to guard the heart--to keep sweet affections locked up
coldly, like mountain waters? Shall we wonder that they sometimes
deceive themselves rather than their neighbors--that they sometimes
misapprehend their own feelings, and mistake for love some less
absorbing intruder, who but lights upon the heart for a single instant,
as a bird upon his spray, to rest or to plume his pinions, and be off
with the very next zephyr. But all this is wide of the mark, Forrester,
and keeps you from your story."
"My story isn't much, Master Colleton, and is easily told. I love Kate
Allen, and as I said before, I believe Kate loves me; and though it be
scarcely a sign of manliness to confess so much, yet I must say to you,
'squire, that I love her so very much that I can not do without her."
"I honor your avowal, Forrester, and see nothing unmanly or unbecoming
in the sentiment you profess. On the contrary, such a feeling, in my
mind, more truly than any other, indicates the presence and possession
of those very qualities out of which true manhood is made.
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