CHAPTER VIII.
"It is now four and twenty years," commenced Wacousta,
"since your father and myself first met as subalterns in
the regiment he now commands, when, unnatural to say, an
intimacy suddenly sprang up between us which, as it was
then to our brother officers, has since been a source of
utter astonishment to myself. Unnatural, I repeat, for
fire and ice are not more opposite than were the elements
of which our natures were composed. He, all coldness,
prudence, obsequiousness, and forethought. I, all
enthusiasm, carelessness, impetuosity, and independence.
Whether this incongruous friendship--friendship! no, I
will not so far sully the sacred name as thus to term
the unnatural union that subsisted between us;--whether
this intimacy, then, sprang from the adventitious
circumstance of our being more frequently thrown together
as officers of the same company,--for we were both attached
to the grenadiers,--or that my wild spirit was soothed
by the bland amenity of his manners, I know not. The
latter, however, is not improbable; for proud, and haughty,
and dignified, as the colonel NOW is, such was not THEN
the character of the ensign; who seemed thrown out of
one of Nature's supplest moulds, to fawn, and cringe,
and worm his way to favour by the wily speciousness of
his manners.
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