"We had all our friends in common. Every friend to one of us was a friend
to both. If one met man or woman he was pleased with, he never rested
until the other knew that man or woman also. Our delight in our friends
must have been greater than that of other men, because of the constant
sharing.
"Our all but identity of form, our inseparability, our unanimity, and our
mutual devotion, were often, although we did not know it, a subject of
talk in the social gatherings of the place. It was more than once or
twice openly mooted--what, in the chances of life, would be likeliest to
strain the bond that united us. Not a few agreed that a terrible
catastrophe might almost be expected from what they considered such an
unnatural relation.
"I think you must already be able to foresee from what the first
difference between us would arise: discord itself was rooted in the very
unison--for unison it was, not harmony--of our tastes and instincts; and
will now begin to understand why it was so difficult, indeed impossible
for me, not to have a secret from my little one.
"Among the persons we met in the home-circles of our fellow-students,
appeared by and by an English lady--a young widow, they said, though
little in her dress or carriage suggested widowhood. We met her again and
again. Each thought her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen, but
neither was much interested in her at first.
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