While
Content therefore looked so steadily, though still seriously, at the
peculiar danger in which he was placed, the four strangers seemingly saw
all of its horrors without any of the known means of avoiding them. Their
chief quickly abandoned the insolence of office, and the tone of
disappointment, for a mien of greater courtesy; and, as policy is often
seen suddenly to change the sentiments of even more pretending personages,
when interests assume a new aspect, so did his language rapidly take a
character of conciliation and courtesy.
The handmaidens were no longer leered at; the mistress of the dwelling was
treated with marked deference; and the air of deep respect with which even
the principal of the party addressed the aged Puritan, bordered on an
exhibition of commendable reverence. Something was said, in the way of
apology, for the disagreeable obligations of duty, and of a difference
between a manner that was assumed to answer secret purposes, and that
which nature and a sense of right would dictate: but neither Mark nor his
son appeared to have sufficient interest in the motives of their visiters,
to put them to the trouble of repeating explanations that were as awkward
to those who uttered them, as they were unnecessary to those who listened.
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