It was over all these renewed wishes that
disappointment was to throw its chill, and it was affections thus riveted
that were to be again blighted by the cruelest of all withering
influences,--that of hope defeated.
It was near the hour of the setting of the sun, when Content and Dudley
reached the deserted clearing on their return to the valley. Their path
led through this opening on the mountain-side, and there was one point,
among the bushes, from which the buildings, that had already arisen from
the ashes of the burning, might be distinctly seen. Until now, the
husband and father had believed himself equal to any effort that duty
might require, in the progress of this mournful service. But here he
paused, and communicated a wish to his companion that he would go ahead
and break the nature of the deception that had led them so far on a
fruitless mission. Perhaps Content was himself ignorant of all he wished,
or to what unskilful hands he had confided a commission of more than
ordinary delicacy. He merely felt his own inability, and, with a weakness
that may find some apology in his feelings, he saw his companion depart,
without instructions or indeed without any other guide than Nature.
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