Had it been otherwise,
doubtless, as you hint, some of my interferences might have ended
unhappily enough. Besides, those feelings I spoke of enabled me to get
the better of momentary distrust, at times when acuteness might have
cost me my life, without saving another's. Only at the end did my
suspicions get the better of me, and you know how wide of the mark they
then proved."
"Wide, indeed," said Don Benito, sadly; "you were with me all day; stood
with me, sat with me, talked with me, looked at me, ate with me, drank
with me; and yet, your last act was to clutch for a monster, not only an
innocent man, but the most pitiable of all men. To such degree may
malign machinations and deceptions impose. So far may even the best man
err, in judging the conduct of one with the recesses of whose condition
he is not acquainted. But you were forced to it; and you were in time
undeceived. Would that, in both respects, it was so ever, and with all
men."
"You generalize, Don Benito; and mournfully enough. But the past is
passed; why moralize upon it? Forget it. See, yon bright sun has
forgotten it all, and the blue sea, and the blue sky; these have turned
over new leaves."
"Because they have no memory," he dejectedly replied; "because they are
not human."
"But these mild trades that now fan your cheek, do they not come with a
human-like healing to you? Warm friends, steadfast friends are the
trades.
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