Oh God!" pursued Wacousta, after a momentary
pause, and striking his palm against his forehead, "that
I ever should have been the dupe of such a cold-blooded
hypocrite!
"I have said our intimacy excited surprise among our
brother officers. It did; for all understood and read
the character of your father, who was as much disliked
and distrusted for the speciousness of his false nature,
as I was generally esteemed for the frankness and warmth
of mine. No one openly censured the evident preference
I gave him in my friendship; but we were often sarcastically
termed the Pylades and Orestes of the regiment, until my
heart was ready to leap into my throat with impatience
at the bitterness in which the taunt was conceived; and
frequently in my presence was allusion made to the blind
folly of him, who should take a cold and slimy serpent
to his bosom only to feel its fangs darted into it at
the moment when most fostered by its genial heat. All,
however, was in vain. On a nature like mine, innuendo
was likely to produce an effect directly opposite to that
intended; and the more I found them inclined to be severe
on him I called my friend, the more marked became my
preference.
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