to create pain in the bosom of my benefactor."
"You stand acquitted in my opinion," answered he, endeavouring to recover from his first transports; "sympathy, perhaps, led you to observations you could not foresee would plunge me into sorrow. It is now twelve years since I have seen a human being to interest me; twice only during that period have those gates, by which you entered, been opened to admit any one within them: Society is hateful to me, and I thought this place sufficiently hidden from the world to preclude all possibility of intrusion; the sound of a bell is but seldom heard, and only at stated times: I was therefore alarmed at the circumstance, and when I opened the wicket had no thoughts of admitting you; but the expression of your countenance struck me, the mournful accents of your supplication vibrated to my heart, and in one moment overturned the scrupulous caution of twelve years."
