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public I made a point of treating him and his pretensions, I secretly
felt that I feared him, and could not help thinking the equality which
he maintained so easily with myself, a proof of his true superiority;
since not to be overcome cost me a perpetual struggle. Yet this
superiority--even this equality--was in truth acknowledged by no one but
myself; our associates, by some unaccountable blindness, seemed not even
to suspect it. Indeed, his competition, his resistance, and especially
his impertinent and dogged interference with my purposes, were not more
pointed than private. He appeared to be destitute alike of the ambition
which urged, and of the passionate energy of mind which enabled me to
excel. In his rivalry he might have been supposed actuated solely by a
whimsical desire to thwart, astonish, or mortify myself; although there
were times when I could not help observing, with a feeling made up of
wonder, abasement, and pique, that he mingled with his injuries, his
insults, or his contradictions, a certain most inappropriate, and
assuredly most unwelcome affectionateness of manner. I could only
conceive this singular behavior to arise from a consummate self-conceit
assuming the vulgar airs of patronage and protection.
Perhaps it was this latter trait in Wilson's conduct, conjoined with our
identity of name, and the mere accident of our having entered the school
upon the same day, which set afloat the notion that we were brothers,
among the senior classes in the academy. These do not usually inquire
with much strictness into the affairs of their juniors. I have before
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