"Strange!" exclaimed Holden, fastening his eyes on his son, and
speaking, as was his wont sometimes, as to himself, "that the full
truth broke not on me before. The heart yearned to him, he was as a
bright star to me; his voice was the music of the forest to my ears;
his eyes were as a sweet dream, a vanished happiness, but I understood
not. It is plain now. It was the voice of my Sarah I heard: they were
her eyes that looked into my heart through his. And was it not thy
prompting, mysterious Nature, that inclined him to me? Was there not
a dim revelation, that I was more to him than other men? Else why
delighted he in the society of a lone, wayward man like me? Lord God
Almighty, no man knoweth the ordinances of heaven, nor can he set the
dominion thereof upon the earth!"

CHAPTER XXXII.

Welcome pure thoughts, welcome ye silent groves.
These guests, these courts my soul most dearly loves:
Now the winged people of the sky shall sing
My cheerful anthems to the gladsome spring.

QUOTED BY IZAAK WALTON, AS BY SIR HARRY WOTTON.

No reason seemed now to exist for Holden's impatience to depart, yet
he longed for the quiet of his hut on the island. The excitement of
his feelings, which, while it acted as a stimulus, sustained him,
had passed away, and the ordinary consequences of overtasking nature
followed. Besides, he had lived so long in solitude, that any other
mode of life was to him unnatural, and especially the roar and tumult
of a populous place, disturbed him. The loudest sounds to which he
had been accustomed were the rippling of the tide on the beach, or the
sigh of the wind, and the songs of birds; and the difference between
them and the noises he now heard, formed a contrast equally harsh and
discordant. But by no word did he betray his wish. Both Mr. and Mrs.
Pownal were desirous to delay the departure of himself and son, and it
seemed to him ingratitude to act in any respect in opposition to the
inclinations of persons to whom he was so greatly indebted.
Several days, therefore, passed after the happening of the events
recapitulated in the last chapter, and yet he remained in New York.
But his feelings could not escape the observation of his son. Better
acquainted than their host and hostess with the peculiarities of his
father, he seized an opportunity to speak of the necessity of a speedy
farewell.

"You are right, I do not doubt, Thomas," said Mr. Pownal, in reply to
the observatio