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Avillion, and Other Tales, by the Author of 'olive'.
Avillion and Other Tales by the Author of 'olive' Author:Dinah Maria Craik General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1853 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: THE SELF-SEER. CHAPTER I. Unless above himself he can Erect himself, how poor a thing is man ! -- Woedsworth. Herman Waldhof was indulging in a love-reverie. He sat, leaning his chin upon his hand, in an easy, careless, dolcefar niente attitude, before a large mirror. His eyes were earnestly fixed, Narcissus-like, upon himself imaged therein. Many said that young Herman Waldhof was the handsomest man in Leipzic, and Herman himself was scarcely disposed to deny the fact. It had been forced upon his notice so often during the last five- and-twenty years, that at length he took it for granted. Yet he was too high-minded to be very vain. He bore his honours as a monarch does his crown, conscious of the dignity which Fortune has bestowed, and therefore taking no pains to assert what must be obvious to all. But in the earnest look which Herman directed towards his mirror there was a deeper feeling thanmere vanity. He loved; he hoped, yet hardly believed, that he was beloved again; and in the reflected features opposite to him might be read a look of doubt and anxious inquiry. When one loves, how quickly does this feeling come ! how does the mirror, which was before hardly noticed, or made only the resort of idle vanity, become like an adviser -- a friend ! We wish to see ourselves with the eyes of the beloved. We wish to know, without flattery, what we really are. We gaze with a feeling of lingering fondness, in which vanity has no share, on those features which we would fain believe are fair and precious in another's sight. Ah, thence proceeds all their charm in our own ! Thus, as the young lover t...« less