With an effort, therefore, not so
much of mind as of mood, he broke the ice which his own indifference had
suffered to close, and by giving a legitimate excuse for the garrulity
of his companion, unlocked once more the treasurehouse of his good-humor
and volubility.
From the dialogue thus recommenced, we are enabled to take a farther
glance into the history of Forrester's early life. He was, as he phrased
it, from "old So. Ca." pronouncing the name of the state in the abridged
form of its written contraction. In one of the lower districts he still
held, in fee, a small but inefficient patrimony; the profits of which
were put to the use of a young sister. Times, however, had grown hard,
and with the impatience and restlessness so peculiar to nearly all
classes of the people of that state, Mark set out in pursuit of his
fortune among strangers. He loved from his childhood all hardy
enterprises; all employments calculated to keep his spirit from
slumbering in irksome quiet in his breast.
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