The Disowned, Complete

stom made this

ainted pomp?-A

ravan, as the youth opened his eyes and saw the good-humoure

ke to disturb you; but my good wife only wait

rom his bed, "that so pretty a face should look cross o

require no professional help from the

d what

that are ever won by a soft tongue

ce of the one for whom this prediction was made, as he list

ypsy, and bathed his face in the water which the provid

s brief toilet, "suppose we breathe the fresh air, wh

draught from a Spirit's fountain, and filled the heart with new youth and the blood with a rapturous delight; the leaves-the green, green leaves of

tr

o'er the

rors the reflected smiles of t

bestowed on her children a gorg

e, when I think of the long road of dust, heat, and toil, that lies before me,

wiser thing!" said

usly as if he were in earnest; "and I must quit you immediate

ile or two on your road." The youth thanked him for a promise which hi

nour as it could possibly have received from th

oy of about three years old, the sole child and idol of the gypsy potentates. But they did not perceive, when the yout

tainers for their hospitality, "I must say good-by

er handsome guest; and the latter, accompanied by

he hand which showered upon all-especially on the damsel who had been his Thais of the ev

able predictions of the whole crew that he r

nd not till then, King Cole broke the sile

me of your friends or relations at W--? I know not what th

ll be delighted with my description; but in sober earnest, I expect to find

f your youth and evident quality to wander al

bent down as if to pluck a wild-flower which

To tell you the truth, I am dying with curiosity to know something more about you than you may be disposed to tell me: you h

ed by the curiosity of his guest, nor by the op

you thought it worth the hearing, nor does it co

ur satisfying my request a still greater favou

ace into an indolent sa

withstanding the irregularity of my education, I grew up strong and healthy, and my reputed mother had taught me so much fear for herself that she left me none for anything else; accordingly, I became bold, reckless, and adventurous, and at the age of thirteen was as thorough a reprobate as the tribe could desire. At that time a singular change befell me: we (that is, my mother and myself) were begging not many miles hence at the door of a rich man's house in which the mistress lay on her death-bed. That mistress was my real mother, from whom Meg had stolen me in the first year of existence. Whether it was through the fear of conscience or the hope of reward, no sooner had Meg learnt the dangerous state of my poor mother, the constant grief, which they said had been the sole tho

ool; accordingly he took a tutor for me,-a simple-hearted, gentle, kind man, who possessed a vast store of learning rather curious than useful. He was a tolerable, and at least an enthusiastic antiquarian, a more than tolerable poetaster;

irect the vagrant tastes my childhood had acquired: on the contrary, the old poets, with their luxurious description of the 'green wood' and the forest life; the fashionable novelists, with their spirited accounts of the wanderings of some fortunate rogue, and the ingenious travellers, with their wild fables, so dear to the imagination of every boy, only fomented within me a strong though secret regret at my change of life, and a restless disgust to the tame h

I went to London, became acquainted with a set of most royal scamps, frequented the theatres and the taverns, the various resorts which constitute the gayeties of a blood just above the middle cla

l with drinking and grew dull with remorse: need I add that my comrades left me to myself? A fit of the spleen, especially if accompanied with duns, makes one wofully misanthropic; so, when I recovered from my illness, I set out on a tour through G

widow, had left Wales, and had now fixed her residence in a well visited watering-place in the west of England. I had never yet seen her, and her letter was a fine-ladylike sort of epistle, with a great deal of romance and a very little sense, written in an extremely pretty hand, and ending with a quotation from Pope (I never could endure Pope, nor indeed any of the poets of the days of Anne and her successors). It was a beautiful season of the year: I had been inured to pedestrian excursions; so I set off on foot to see

d, and yellow, covered the floor. A full-length picture of a thin woman, looking most agreeably ill-tempered, stared down at me from the chimney-piece; three stuffed birds-how emblematic of domestic life!-stood stiff and imprisoned, even after death, in a glass cage. A fire-screen and a bright fireplace; chairs covered with holland,

ncy her joy,"

knows where, and were certainly put on God knows how. My sister was miserably ashamed of me: she had not even the manners to disguise it. In a higher rank of life than that which she held she would have suffered far less mortification; for I fancy great people pay but little real attention to externals. Even if a man of rank is vulgar, it makes no difference in the orbit in which he m

riven back again to my favourite and fresh fields, as a reed upon a wild stream is dashed back upon the green rushes from which it has been torn. You perceive that I have many comforts and distinctions above the rest; for, alas, sir, there is no society, however free and democratic, where wealth will not create an aristocracy; the remnant of my fortune provides me with my unostentatious equipage and the few luxuries it contains; it repays secretly to the poor what my fellow-vagrants occasionally filch from them; it a

panion: "your wife? How c

ortune; no, I was full of the romance of the Nut-brown Maid's lover, and attempted a trial of woman's affection, which even in these days was not disappointed. Still her father would not consent to our marriage, till very luckily things went bad with him; corn, crops, cattle,-the deuce was in them all; an execution was in his hou

and pursuits are centred in that world which you despise, yet I confess that I feel a sensation very like envy at your singular ch

d somewhat bleak extent of country lay before them. Here and there only a few solitary trees broke the uniformity of the wide fields and scanty hedgerows,

arther; your way lies straight onwards, and you will rea

him. "If we ever meet again, it will probably solve a curious riddle; nam

greater chance of being disgusted with others than with one's self; so changing a l

heart on wi

nour's tow

freedom an

the sum of