- ing the history of those days long afterwards, Beauvais
acknowledges that he was mistaken in changing his attitude towards Guidèl:
"Though first impressions are sometimes erroneous,
I believe there is a balance in favor of their
correctness. If a singular antipathy seizes you for
a particular person at first sight, no matter how
foolish it may seem, you may be almost sure that
there is something in your two natures that is
destined to remain in constant opposition. You
may conquer it for a time; it may even change, as
it did in my case, to profound affection; but,
sooner or later, it will spring up again, with tenfold
strength and deadliness; the reason of your first
aversion will be made painfully manifest, and the
end of it all will be doubly bitter because of the
love that for a brief while sweetened it. I say
I loved Silvion Guidèl!—and in proportion to the
sincerity of that love, I afterwards measured the intensity
of my hate!"
The wedding day draws closer, and Beauvais remains
blind to everything save his own joy and
the bliss which he fondly imagines will result from
the union. True, he sometimes notices a certain
lack of enthusiasm in Pauline's view of the approaching
ceremony, but he attributes this and her
wistfulness of expression to "the nervous excitement
a young girl would naturally feel at the swift
approach of her wedding day." Strangely enough,
Guidèl, too, shows signs of physical and mental
