But though Stevens forbore to commit himself openly in the cause
which he professed a desire to espouse, he was yet sufficiently
heedful to maintain all those externals of devotion which a serious
believer would be apt to exhibit. He could be a good actor of a
part, and in this lay his best talent. He had that saving wisdom
of the worldling, which is too often estimated beyond its worth,
called cunning; and the frequent successes of which produces that
worst of all the diseases that ever impaired the value of true
greatness--conceit. Alfred Stevens fancied that he could do everything,
and this fancy produced in him the appearance of a courage which
his moral nature never possessed. He had the audacity which results
from presumption, not the wholesome strength which comes from
the conscious possession of a right purpose. But a truce to our
metaphysics.
Never did saint wear the aspect of such supernatural devotion. He
knelt with the first, groaned audibly at intervals, and when his
face became visible, his eyes were strained in upward glances, so
that the spectator could behold little more in their orbs than a
sea of white.
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