 but to
look on, be fashioned and admire.
    Mr. Falkland made a powerful effort to recover his tranquillity. Williams!
said he, you instruct me well. You have a right notion of things, and I have
great hopes of you. I will be more of a man. I will forget the past, and do
better for the time to come. The future, the future is always our own.
    I am sorry, sir, that I have given you pain. I am afraid to say all that I
think. But it is my opinion that mistakes will ultimately be cleared up, justice
done, and the true state of things come to light in spite of the false colours
that may for a time obscure it.
    The idea I suggested did not give Mr. Falkland the proper degree of delight.
He suffered a temporary relapse. Justice! - he muttered. I do not know what is
justice. My case is not within the reach of common remedies; perhaps of none. I
only know that I am miserable. I began life with the best intentions and the
most fervid philanthropy; and here I am - miserable - miserable beyond
expression or endurance.
    Having said this, he seemed suddenly to recollect himself, and re-assume his
accustomed dignity and command. How came this conversation? cried he. Who gave
you a right to be my confident? Base, artful wretch that you are! learn to be
more respectful! Are my passions to be wound and unwound by an insolent
domestic? Do you think I will be an instrument to be played on at your pleasure,
till you have extorted all the treasures of my soul? Begone, and fear lest you
be made to pay for the temerity you have already committed.
    There was an energy and determination in the gestures with which these words
were accompanied that did not admit of their being disputed. My mouth was
closed; I felt as if deprived of all share of activity, and was only able
silently and passively to quit the apartment.
 

                                  Chapter III

Two days subsequent to this conversation Mr. Falkland ordered me to be called to
him. [I shall continue to speak in my narrative of the silent, as well as the
articulate part of the intercourse between us. His countenance was habitually
animated and expressive much beyond that of any other man I have seen. The
curiosity, which, as I have said, constituted my ruling passion, stimulated me
to make it my perpetual study. It will also most probably happen, while I am
thus employed in collecting together the scattered incidents of my history, that
I
