Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 2).djvu/199

 dinand declared his intention of going after breakfast to see his son, and of leaving the Castle the following day.

"Will not the Count be displeased that you shorten the time you first purposed to stay?" asked Ernest.

"I believe not," replied Ferdinand; "my preference can give neither pleasure nor information; if he is not sincere in his professions of affection, he will be glad to be relieved from the irksomeness of dissembling, and of beholding a man whose penetration he may fear; if on the contrary, I do him injustice, he can set no value on my company, when he knows I have preferred a stranger, by declining all pecuniary favours, and have consented to owe obligations to another;—thus, every way, he can derive no satisfaction from my being here, and he has sufficient employment in his new prospects to engross all his attention." Ernest subscribed to the justice of this opinion, and Ferdinand soon after attended his brother.