End of the world -- Fiction; Epidemics -- Fiction; Science fiction; Twenty-first century -- Fiction
At this time Lord Raymond returned from Greece. No two persons could be
more opposite than Adrian and he. With all the incongruities of his
character, Raymond was emphatically a man of the world. His passions
were violent; as these often obtained the mastery over him, he could
not always square his conduct to the obvious line of self-interest, but
self-gratification at least was the paramount object with him. He
looked on the structure of society as but a part of the machinery which
supported the web on which his life was traced. The earth was spread
out as an highway for him; the heavens built up as a canopy for him.
Adrian felt that he made a part of a great whole. He owned affinity not
only with mankind, but all nature was akin to him; the mountains and
sky were his friends; the winds of heaven and the offspring of earth
his playmates; while he the focus only of this mighty mirror, felt his
life mingle with the universe of existence. His soul was sympathy, and
dedicated to the worship of beauty and excellence. Adrian and Raymond
now came into contact, and a spirit of aversion rose between them.
Adrian despised the narrow views of the politician, and Raymond held in
supreme contempt the benevolent visions of the philanthropist.
With the coming of Raymond was formed the storm that laid waste at one
fell blow the gardens of delight and sheltered paths which Adrian
fancied that he had secured to himself, as a refuge from defeat and
contumely. Raymond, the deliverer of Greece, the graceful soldier, who
bore in his mien a tinge of all that, peculiar to her native clime,
Evadne cherished as most dear— Raymond was loved by Evadne. Overpowered
by her new sensations, she did not pause to examine them, or to
regulate her conduct by any sentiments except the tyrannical one which
suddenly usurped the empire of her heart. She yielded to its influence,
and the too natural consequence in a mind unattuned to soft emotions
was, that the attentions of Adrian became distasteful to her. She grew
capricious; her gentle conduct towards him was exchanged for asperity
and repulsive coldness. When she perceived the wild or pathetic appeal
of his expressive countenance, she would relent, and for a while resume
her ancient kindness. But these fluctuations shook to its depths the
soul of the sensitive youth; he no longer deemed the world subject to
him, because he possessed Evadne’s love; he felt in every nerve that
the dire storms of the mental universe were about to attack his fragile
being, which quivered at the expectation of its advent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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