154 Zurnaside Cottage.

 

sently he continued, “ There was reason in it, when
the ancients represented the waters of Lethe as
flowing near the Elysian fields; but we have a
washing better than that of the waters of forgetful-
ness, in which we may steep all our past. ‘ Leaving
those things which are behind, and pressing forward
to those things which are before’—so spake he who
had the murder of Stephen on his mind. Long
dwelling on that which was, and that which might
have been, is profitless and unwholesome, and he can
do his father no good thereby.”

No, I could do my father no good ; but I had a
feeling that I should not be shewing a due sense of
my circumstances—I should seem careless and un-
feeling—if I did not feel, and shew that I felt,
miserable. Besides, there was a certain satisfaction
in it, as though I were making up for past miscon-
duct by present wretchedness. I was sufficiently
ashamed of all this not to confess it to my master ;
indeed, I doubt whether I then made it out clearly
in my own mind; but I stuck to it. I would not
cheer up; I would not follow my master’s counsels ;
and all through our early dinner I let my mind
still dwell on that one thought, and was the dullest
and most morose companion imaginable, never
attempting to respond to my kind master’s efforts
to cheer me up. After the dinner things had been