Page:Horrid Mysteries Volume 3.djvu/36

 for more important conversations in our closet.

It was very favourable to our purpose, that many of my former acquaintances and friends gradually gathered around us. Don Bernhard and Count S******i were the first, and more strongly captivated with our plans than I had left them. They were surprised to the highest degree at Count S******'s adventures, and impatient to have those mysterious incidents elucidated. The sufferings and experiences of some years had ripened our characters, and rendered them more harmonious; and we found, in the mutual exchange of our ideas, comforts, pleasures, and prospects which none of us had expected.

Our method of proceeding was also altered very much through the existing circumstances. Having divested ourselves of our former timidity, we made no secret of our plans, but spoke of them wherever we met; and while we thus gained many