provide such little necessaries, as were esteemed essential
to his comfort. But he permitted the young man to remain only a short
time. "Go," he said, "the world is bright before thee; enjoy its
transient sunshine. The time may come when even thou, with hope and
confidence in thy heart, and heaven in thine eyes, shalt say, 'I have
no pleasure therein.'" Pownal therefore returned to Hillsdale, without
reluctance it may be supposed, when we add, that the same evening
found him at the house of Mr. Bernard. It will be recollected he had
commissions to execute for both the Judge and his wife, but if the
reader thinks that not a sufficient reason why he should call
upon them so soon, we have no objection to his adopting any other
conjecture, even to the extravagant supposition, that there was some
magnet to attract the young man's wandering feet.
It was a happy evening Pownal spent at the Judge's house. All seemed
glad to see him again, and expressed their delight and wonder at the
discovery of his parent. And yet the young man could not help fancying
there was a greater difference between his reception by the members
of the family, than he had been accustomed to. Mr. and Mrs. Bernard,
indeed, were equally cordial as of old, but Anne, though she tendered
him her hand with her usual frankness, and allowed it to linger in
his, appeared graver, and less disposed to indulge an exuberance of
spirits, while William Bernard was evidently more distant, and formal.
There was, however, no want of politeness on his part, for he mingled
with his usual grace and intelligence in the conversation, and
the change was perceptible rather in the omission of old terms of
familiarity, than in any manifestation of coldness. He seemed to pay
the same attention, and evince a like interest with the rest, in the
particulars of the adventures of Pownal, which, at the request of Mrs.
Bernard, he narrated. Had a stranger, or one who saw the two young
men together for the first time, been present, he would have noticed
nothing inconsistent with ordinary friendship, but Pownal compared
the present with the past, and his jealous sensitiveness detected a
something wanting. But for all that, his enjoyment, though it might be
lessened, was not, as we have intimated, destroyed. He half suspected
the cause, and his proud spirit rose with resentment. But so long as
he enjoyed the esteem of the parents, and was a welcome visitor at
their house, and Miss Bernard t
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