Still there were singular and even mysterious evidences of a growing
consciousness of the nature of the discourse of which he was occasionally
an auditor, that would have betrayed greater familiarity with the language
and opinions of the inhabitants of the valley, than his known origin and
his absolute withdrawal from communication could give reason to expect.
This important and inexplicable fact was proved by the frequent and
meaning glances of his dark eye, when aught was uttered in his hearing
that affected, ever so remotely, his own condition; and, once or twice, by
the haughty gleamings of ferocity that escaped him, when Eben Dudley was
heard to vaunt the prowess of the white men in their encounters with the
original owners of the country. The Puritan did not fail to note these
symptoms of a budding intelligence, as the pledges of a fruit that would
more than reward his pious toil; and they served to furnish a great relief
to certain occasional repugnance, which all his zeal Could not entirely
subdue, at being the instrument of causing so much suffering to one who,
after all, had inflicted no positive wrong on himself.
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