A Twofold Life Author:Wilhelmine von Hillern Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: did not succeed in becoming popular. An earnest, uninterrupted course of study would, in a very short time, have made him competent to enter upon some settled ca... more »reer; but too frequently Heinrich's assiduous industry yielded to Henri's pursuit of pleasure, and the wearied frame threatened to give way under this constant change from one extreme to the other. When he had at last exhausted all the intellectual and material treasures of his native land without the slightest profit to himself, some secret power again drove him forth to seek in a foreign country the happiness he could not find at home. He went to Italy. FROM FALSEHOOD TO FALSEHOOD. On the way to Rome he met a gentleman whose striking appearance attracted his attention. Heinrich thought he had never seen a handsomer and at the same time more intellectual countenance, and a conversation arose between them which greatly interested Heinrich, and very soon led him to make disclosures about himself and his course of life, to which the stranger listened with an attention extremely flattering to Ottmar's self-love, and entered, with affable condescension, into every subject introduced by the latter. He appeared to be so familiar with 'every sphere of life, all the relations of European courts, that Heinrich took him for a diplomat, and eagerly gathered up all the information he communicated, because it always bore the stamp of accurate, positive knowledge. But the stranger had so much noble enthusiasm, his language was often so eloquent, that Heinrich frequently felt tempted to think him an artist, and his curiosity increased more and more when he baffled, with consummate skill, every effort to turn the conversation upon himself. The hours flew by Heinrich like the scenes through which he was passing, but he noticed not...« less