"Well, well!" replied his uncle, drawing his arm-chair closer to the hearth, and stirring the fire into a cheerful blaze. "Time does work wonderful changes, and in nothing so much as in opinion. In youth we encore the sentiment,
'Oh, bless my country, Heaven! he said, and died:'
but, as we advance in life, we think,
'How weak it is to pity Cato's case,
Who might have lived, and had a handsome place!'
"Your views of human nature are any thing but encouraging," exclaimed Norbourne.
"I have heard much," returned his companion, "of the beauty of truth; but it is a beauty no one likes to look upon. To find it out, is only to find that you have been duped in every possible manner; and to hear it, is only to have a friend give way to his temper, and say something disagreeable to you."
"But what," asked Courtenaye, "is to become of us, when the freshness of pleasure is gone with the freshness of youth, and one illusion has faded after another?"
