ect. Like the religious bigot, she was sufficiently
disposed to avenge a hostility against her opinions with the weapons of
sublunary warfare.

Meanwhile I had smiled at the impotence of her malice, as an object of
contempt rather than alarm. She perceived, as I imagine, the slight
estimation in which I held her, and this did not a little increase the
perturbation of her thoughts.

One day I was left alone, with no other person in the house than this
swarthy sybil. The thieves had set out upon an expedition about two
hours after sunset on the preceding evening, and had not returned, as
they were accustomed to do, before day-break the next morning. This was
a circumstance that sometimes occurred, and therefore did not produce
any extraordinary alarm. At one time the scent of prey would lead them
beyond the bounds they had prescribed themselves, and at another the
fear of pursuit: the life of a thief is always uncertain. The old woman
had been preparing during the night for the meal to which they would
expect to sit down as soon as might be after their return.

For myself, I had learned from their habits to be indifferent to the
regular return of the different parts of the day, and in some degree to
turn day into night, and night into day. I had been now several weeks in
this residence, and the season was considerably advanced. I had passed
some hours during the night in ruminating on my situation. The character
and manners of the men among whom I lived were disgusting to me. Their
brutal ignorance, their ferocious habits, and their coarse behaviour,
instead of becoming more tolerable by custom, hourly added force to my
original aversion. The uncommon vigour of their minds, and acuteness of
their invention in the business they pursued, compared with the
odiousness of that business and their habitual depravity, awakened in me
sensations too painful to be endured. Moral disapprobation, at least in
a mind unsubdued by philosophy, I found to be one of the most fertile
sources of disquiet and uneasiness. From this pain the society of Mr.
Raymond by no means relieved me. He was indeed eminently superior to the
vices of the rest; but I did not less exquisitely feel how much he was
out of his place, how disproportionably associated, or how contemptibly
employed. I had attempted to counteract the errors under which he and
his companions laboured; but I had found the obstacles that presented
themselves greater than I had imagined