Her departure was not attended to by her companion, who for a time
continued his perusal of the book. No great while, however, elapsed,
when, rising also from his seat with a hasty exclamation of surprise, he
threw down the volume and followed her into the room where she sat
pensively meditating over thoughts and feelings as vague and inscrutable
to her mind, as they were clear and familiar to her heart. With a degree
of warm impetuosity, even exaggerated beyond his usual manner, which
bore at all times this characteristic, he approached her, and, seizing
her hand passionately in his, exclaimed hastily--
"Edith, my sweet Edith, how unhappy that book has made me!"
"How so, Ralph--why should it make you unhappy?"
"It has taught me much, Edith--very much, in the last half hour. It has
spoken of privation and disappointment as the true elements of life, and
has shown me so many pictures of society in such various situations, and
with so much that I feel assured must be correct, that I am unable to
resist its impressions.
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