"
He gazed at her eagerly as she spoke; and while he gazed there came to
him, perversely enough, a vision of the life he was renouncing, not as
it concerned the public welfare but in its merely personal aspect: a
vision of the power, the luxury, the sumptuous background of traditional
state and prerogative in which his artistic and intellectual tastes, as
well as his easy impulses of benevolence, would find unchecked and
immediate gratification. It was the first time that he had been aware of
such lurking influences under his most generous aspirations; but even as
Fulvia ceased to speak the vision faded, leaving only an intenser
longing to bend her will to his.
"You are right," he rejoined; "we must follow that voice to the end; but
why not together? Your father himself often questioned whether the
patriot could not serve his people better at a distance than in their
midst. In France, where the new ideas are not only tolerated but put in
practice, we shall be able to study their effects and to learn how they
may best be applied to the relief of our own unhappy people; and as a
private person, independent of party and patronage, could I not do more
than as the nominal head of a narrow priest-ridden government, where
every act and word would be used by my enemies to injure me and the
cause I represent?"
The vigour and rapidity of the attack, and the promptness with which he
converted her argument to his own use, were not without visible effect.
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