She sat down by the window; and searched her
mind for the thoughts which she had lost, when weariness overcame her on
the night before.
The first subject to which she returned was the vagabond subject of
Captain Wragge.
The "moral agriculturist" had failed to remove her personal distrust of
him, cunningly as he had tried to plead against it by openly confessing
the impostures that he had practiced on others. He had raised her
opinion of his abilities; he had amused her by his humor; he had
astonished her by his assurance; but he had left her original conviction
that he was a Rogue exactly where it was when he first met with her.
If the one design then in her mind had been the design of going on the
stage, she would, at all hazards, have rejected the more than doubtful
assistance of Captain Wragge on the spot.
But the perilous journey on which she had now adventured herself had
another end in view--an end, dark and distant--an end, with pitfalls
hidden on the way to it, far other than the shallow pitfalls on the
way to the stage. In the mysterious stillness of the morning, her mind
looked on to its second and its deeper design, and the despicable figure
of the swindler rose before her in a new view.
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