Her smile of parting is very gracious, but it is not, after
all, such a smile as your warm heart pines for.
Ten days after, you are walking toward the old homestead with such
feelings as it never called up before. In the days of boyhood there were
triumphant thoughts of the gladness and the pride with which, when
grown to the stature of manhood, you would come back to that little town
of your birth. As you have bent with your dreamy resolutions over the
tasks of the cloister life, swift thoughts have flocked on you of the
proud step, and prouder heart, with which you would one day greet the
old acquaintances of boyhood; and you have regaled yourself on the
jaunty manner with which you would meet old Dr. Bidlow, and the
patronizing air with which you would address the pretty, blue-eyed
Madge.
It is late afternoon when you come in sight of the tall sycamores that
shade your home; you shudder now, lest you may meet any whom you once
knew. The first keen grief of youth seeks little of the sympathy of
companions: it lies--with a sensitive man--bounded within the narrowest
circles of the heart. They only who hold the key to its innermost
recesses can speak consolation.
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