I, however, parried the attack, by replying
indifferently, that if he should have the hardihood to
encounter the same dangers, he would, if successful,
require no other prompter than the joy of self-preservation
to lend the same glow of satisfaction to his own features.
Nothing further was said on the subject; but conversing
on indifferent topics, we again threaded the mazes of
rock and underwood we had passed at an early hour, and
finally gained the town in which we were quartered.
"During dinner, as on our way home, although my voice
occasionally mixed with the voices of my companions, my
heart was far away, and full of the wild but innocent
happiness in which it had luxuriated. At length, the more
freely to indulge in the recollection, I stole at an
early hour from the mess-room, and repaired to my own
apartments. In the course of the morning, I had hastily
sketched an outline of your mother's features in pencil,
with a view to assist me in the design of a miniature I
purposed painting from memory. This was an amusement of
which I was extremely and in which I had attained
considerable excellence; being enabled, from memory alone,
to give a most correct representation of any object that
particularly fixed my attention.
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