and numberless painful experiences ought to have put me on my guard, after love even had lavished all her blessings on me; a hopeless, unhappy passion, inflamed by impossibility, and combating the most sacred duties. What a misfortune is it to have been for some time the favourite of fortune! Nothing had been able to resist me as yet, but here was the boundary of my power; and while I attempted to overleap it, I was in danger to lose a friend, a real treasure, in the pursuit of an imaginary one.
I was the only person in our cheerful circle that did not sincerely share the general flow of pleasure which pervaded the heart of every one present. The smile of cheerfulness sat on my lips, but baneful poison rankled in my heart. My eyes, which scarcely were able to retain the tear of painful disappointment, were overclouded with a mist. Every innocent glance of Caroline's looks, meeting those of the enraptured Count, stung me to theheart;
