OR THE DESERT ISLAND. 133

CHAPTER XIX.

Peace and Happiness — The Firmament of Heayen— Music in the
Desert — Sickness — Affectionate Solicitude.

Turse hours thus spent were the happiest Philip had
ever known—consecrated as they were to the purest and
most sincere of earthly friendships, His father had given
him a solid education ; and his love for reading good and
useful books had greatly extended it. But now the study
of the sciences and of nature’s mysteries made the days
roll by him almost imperceptibly. So calm and 80, peace-
ful was the life he was now leading—so charming was the
counts conversation—so friendly and faultless were his
manners, that he from day to day enjoyed on this sterile
isle a satisfaction he had never before known. So that
the thought that the count’s earnest wish might possibly
be realized gave him a sensation of pain which he could
‘not define.

The affection which Philip had conceived for his com-
panion in misfortune far surpassed the hatred he once

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