Page:Life and transactions of Mrs. Jane Shore (2).pdf/18

 18 table, with some simple refreshment, was placed before him. The viands, however, which he lifted to mouth, he seemed to swallow with difficulty; and trembling hands and pale face drew on him the eyes both mother and daughter; when, after a short ad hurried survey, suddenly the mother shrieked, and file to the arms of her beloved and long exiled sou. A man upon his hand, which he had received when he was child, first told the mother who her guest was. He had been endeavouring to disguise himself, to enjoy nuo vividly the home of his childhood. After the first con- gratulations were over, he told them of his sufferings Siberia, where as Thomson beautifully says, nought around Strikes the sad eye but deserts lost in snow, And heavy loaded groves, and solid floods, That stretch athwart the solitary vast Their icy horrors to the frozen main ; And cheerless towns far distant, never bless'd Save when its annual course the caravan Bends to the golden coast of rich Cathay With news of human kind--

how he land escaped-and how he travelled on fog through a thousand of dangers and difficulties, which his former hardships had learned him to brave, and th pleasure that he now felt, had fully atoned for. Mariette congratulated herself with no ordinary feel- ings on the arrival of her brother. She felt relieve now, and fully at liberty to undertake the journey which she had long meditated. A day or two passed in make- ing arrangements for her departure, which she deter mined should be privately; for she well knew, that to consult her mother or brother would be to throw in her way an effectual barrier.. To keep their minds at case however, she drew out a short letter intimating that she had left them on a particular errand, which she durst not disclose, and that she would return in a few weeks. A small purse of money which was her own, and a small bundle of clothes, which she had previously hid under a tree, at some distance from the cottage,