"Many were the congratulations I received from my
companions, whom I found waiting my return. They had
endured the three hours of my absence with intolerable
anxiety and alarm; until, almost despairing of beholding
me again, they had resolved on going back without me.
They said they had repeatedly sounded their horns; but
meeting with no answer from mine, had been compelled to
infer either that I had strayed to a point whence return
to them was impracticable, or that I must have perished
in the abyss. I readily gave in to the former idea;
stating I had been led by the traces of the wounded deer
to a considerable distance, and over passes which it had
proved a work of time and difficulty to surmount, yet
without securing my spoil. All this time there was a glow
of animation on my cheek, and a buoyancy of spirit in my
speech, that accorded ill, the first, with the fatigue
one might have been supposed to experience in so perilous
a chase; the second, with the disappointment attending
its result. Your father, ever cool and quick of penetration,
was the first to observe this; and when he significantly
remarked, that, to judge from my satisfied countenance,
my time had been devoted to the pursuit of more interesting
game, I felt for a moment as if he was actually master
of my secret, and was sensible my features underwent a
change.
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