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The years went on, and still Mary and I were parted, except in my dreams The years went on, until the perilous time which coe when the strongest of all the passions seizes on the senses, and asserts its mastery over mind and body alike

I had hitherto passively endured the wreck of my earliest and dearest hopes: I had lived patiently, and lived innocently, for Mary's sake Nowthe lost things of the past My days, it is true, were still devoted to the tasks set iven, in secret, to a reckless profligacy, which (in ust and dismay I profaned my remembrances of Mary in the coradation I ih; I have waited for her long enough The one thing now to do is to enjoy et her"

Froht so tihts mostly come to us; but I ceased absolutely to see her in my dreams We were now, in the completest sense of the word, parted Mary's pure spirit could hold no communion with mine; Mary's pure spirit had left me

It is needless to say that I failed to keep the secret of ht of her grief was the first influence that sobered ree at least I restrained myself: I made the effort to return to purer ways of life Mr Gerive me up as lost He advised me, as a means of self-reform, to make my choice of a profession, and to absorb myself in closer studies than any that I had yet pursued

I ood friend and second father, not only by following his advice, but by adopting the profession to which he had been himself attached before he inherited his fortune--the profession ofa surgeon too

Having entered, at rather an earlier age than usual, on my neay of life, I may at least say for myself that I worked hard I won, and kept, the interest of the professors under whom I studied On the other hand, it cannot be denied thatcomplete I worked; but what I did was done selfishly, bitterly, with a hard heart In religion and morals I adopted the views of a materialist companion of e I believed in nothing but what I could see, or taste, or feel I lost all faith in humanity With the one exception of my mother, I had no respect for women My remembrances of Mary deteriorated until they became little more than a lost link of association with the past I still preserved the green flag as a er kept about -desk Now and then a wholesome doubt, whether my life was not utterly unworthy ofpossession of ical order of things that I should follow my conclusions to their bitter end, and consistently despise myself