ABSTRACT
Awhile Waldorf remained silent on the ground – his mind was now vacant, for he had shut his mental ear against the voice of officious reflection. / His arms were folded – his eyes fixed, when suddenly he exclaimed, ‘How shall I meet Lok after this apostacy? I will be truant once more;’ –and, springing from the earth, he bent his tottering steps towards the depth of the forest, and soon arrived in some of his most favourite haunts. Shortly he reached the spot where the Recluse had first beheld him, weeping for his recent losses: he could not forbear smiling at the idea, from a combination of emotions, too numerous to be definable. Perhaps the dismal scenes of his past life at that minute recurred, in competition with the childish accident he had then so deeply regretted. ‘How swift the gradations to the height of / anguish! ’he lowly articulated, and darted forwards.
