Now that he was gone, she wondered whether he had devised
any steps which would take effect after his departure.
Faustina was quite as much in love as Gouache himself, and spent
much time in calculating the chances of a favourable issue from
the situation in which she found herself. Life without Anastase
was impossible, but the probabilities of her becoming his wife in
the ordinary course of events were very few, as far as she was
able to judge, and she had moments of extreme depression, during
which she despaired of everything. The love of a very young girl
may in itself be both strong and enduring, but it generally has
the effect of making her prone to extremes of hope and fear,
uncertain of herself, vacillating in her ideas, and unsteady in
the pursuit of the smaller ends of life. Throw two equal weights
into the scales of a perfectly adjusted balance, the arm will
swing and move erratically many times before it returns to its
normal position, although there is a potential equilibrium in the
machine which will shortly assert itself in absolute tranquillity.
Love in a very young person is rarely interesting, unless it is
attended by heroic or tragic circumstances. Human life is very
like the game of chess, of which the openings are so limited in
number that a practised player knows them all by heart, whereas
the subsequent moves are susceptible of infinite variation.
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