"See what it is," thought Ben, "to be well dressed and have fashionable friends."

 

As he sat in a reserved seat but a little distance from the platform, surrounded by well-dressed people, he was sometimes tempted³ to doubt whether he was the same boy who a few days before was wandering about the streets, a friendless outcast. The change was so complete and wonderful that he seemed to[Pg 285] himself a new boy. But he enjoyed the change. It seemed a good deal pleasanter resting in the luxurious⁴ bedchamber, which he shared with Charles at his sister's house, than the chance accommodations to which he had been accustomed.

 

On Monday he started for Philadelphia, on his journey home.

 

We will precede him.

 

Mrs. Brandon sat in an arm-chair before the fire, knitting. She was not old, but care and sorrow had threaded her dark hair with silver, and on her brow there were traces of a sorrow patiently borne, but none the less deeply felt. She had never recovered from the loss of her son. Her daughter Mary had inherited something of her father's self-contained, undemonstrative manner; but Ben had been impulsive⁵ and affectionate, and had always been very near his mother's heart. To feel that he had passed from her sight was a great sorrow; but it was a greater still not to know where he was. He might be suffering pain or privation; he might have fallen into bad and vicious habits for aught she knew. It would have been a relief, though a sad one, to know that he[Pg 286] was dead. But nothing whatever had been heard of him since the letter of which the reader is already aware.

 

Since Mary's marriage Mrs. Brandon had been very much alone. Her husband was so taciturn and reserved that he was not much company for her; so she was left very much to her own thoughts, and these dwelt often upon Ben, though six years had elapsed since he left home.

分享到：