You are under no obligation to the government, and you
have already conferred such an obligation upon the intendant that you
have a right to expect a return. Why stay here, when you can safely
mix with the world and know how things are going on? I do not require
your assistance, now that I have Pablo, who is more useful every day.
Do not lose such an opportunity of making a friend for yourself and
all of us--a protector, I may say--and who is, by what he has confided
to you, any thing but approving of the conduct of the present
government. He has paid you a deserved compliment by saying that he
can and will trust you. You must not refuse the offer, Edward--it
would really be folly if you did."
"I believe you are right, Humphrey; but I have been so accustomed to
range the forest--I am so fond of the chase--I am so impatient of
control or confinement, that I hardly know how to decide. A
secretary's life is any thing but pleasing to me, sitting at a table
writing and reading all day long. The pen is a poor exchange for the
long-barreled gun."
"It does more execution, nevertheless," replied Humphrey, "if what I
have read is true. But you are not to suppose that your life will be
such a sedentary one. Did he not say that he would have to trust you
with missions of importance? Will you not, by going to London and
other places, and mixing with people of importance, be preparing
yourself for your proper station in life, which I trust that one day
you will resume? And does it follow, that because you are appointed a
secretary, you are not to go out in the forest and shoot a deer with
Oswald, if you feel inclined--with this difference, that you may do it
then without fear of being insulted or persecuted by such a wretch as
that Corbould? Do not hesitate any longer, my dear brother; recollect
that our sisters ought not to live this forest life as they advance in
years--they were not born for it, although they have so well conformed
to it.
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