CHAPTER VIII.
I forbear troubling my readers with an enumeration of the changes that little adventure, which, at bottom, was a mere nothing, produced in my character. They will be perceived, without my assistance, in the sequel of my history. The chief effect it produced was a growing coldness to Caroline. A fluctuation with regard to this point too, in which I had, till then, displayed a firmness that reflected honour on my character; a sudden breaking from a kind of mental sleep, a strong internal ebullition, fleeting sensations, hazarded presensions, a high degree of activity, and a subsequent state of apathy, made me dream, then urged me again to hunt eagerly after peace and happiness, and, when I imagined to have found them, to throw them away suddenly. The enthusiasm arising from a quicker circulation of the blood was past;and
