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part of them; all the land on this side, the elder trees belongs to the next estate." George asked the name of the owner? "Mr. Mental, the cynic whom you saw yesterday at my house. What do you start at, nephew?"———"Nothing Sir. (replied the youth, hesitating.) but Mr Mental is a strange man."———"Ah! God forgive him, (said Joseph,) if all that people say be true."———"God cannot forgive him, (rejoined the Chaplain) he is an Atheist." "He is undoubted a singular being, (said the Knight,) and people will talk, although nobody, it secms, knows who or what he is. But I have heard old men. who remember his first coming to reside here, whisper strange stories."
After a fruitless search, the party returned home. A variety of conjectures were raised in the fertile brain of the youth, all pointing to Mental. He conceived him to be the man he had seen at the tomb on the preceding night; he imagined the voice he heard to be that gentleman; and built on these impressions a suspicion to the disadvantage of his character, Then his heart rebuked him for so illiberal a conclusion, from a train of mere accidents; he recollected the invitation he had received, and resolved immediately to visit him. He kept his intended visit a secret from the family, and merely observed, that he was going to take a stroll round the village. The residence of Mr. Mental was a large old fashioned house, containing many rooms, of which three only were in use; one served as a kitchin and chamber for an old woman, his only domestic;
