ABSTRACT

My companions soon left the beach, and we proceeded across the open field till we reached a small brook, along the bank of which we went for a considerable space, continuing the conversation as we had begun it – each of us endeavouring to decipher the character and views of the other. Wilton seemed to take deeper and deeper interest in my affairs the more he knew of them, and this would have awakened in me a more friendly feeling towards him, had not his wild look and strange expressions made me doubtful whether he was not half crazed; and well he might have inferred the same of me. Mary said little, though she did not appear to have any of the awkward bashfulness and false shame, common to girls of her age in the presence of strangers. As we were ascending a small rising ground where the brook made a circuit, Wilton said to me,