Let the boys be the ones to play the part of
the lovesick student." But when enraged at her subtle mockery, he took a
mental oath not to come back again, she seemed to guess it and she
suddenly assumed an affectionate air, attracting him with an interest
that made him foresee the near approach of his triumph.
If he was offended and kept silence, she was the one who talked of love,
of eternal passions between two beings of lofty minds, based on the
harmony of their thoughts; and she did not cease this dangerous
conversation until the master, with a sudden renewal of confidence,
came forward offering his love, only to be received with that kindly and
still ironical smile that seemed to look on him as a child whose
judgment was faulty.
And so the master lived, fluctuating between hope and despair, now
favored, now repelled, but always incapable of escaping from her
influence, as if a crime were haunting him. He sought opportunities to
see her alone with the ingenuity of a college boy, he invented pretexts
for going to her house at unusual hours, when there were no callers
present, and his courage failed him when he ran into the pretty doctor
and felt around himself that sensation of uneasiness which always seizes
an unwelcome guest.
The vague hope of meeting the countess at Moncloa, of walking with her a
whole afternoon, unmolested by that circle of insufferable people who
surrounded her with their drooling worship, kept him excited all night
and the next morning, as if a real rendezvous were awaiting him.
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