Page:The Mysterious Warning - Parsons (1796, volume 3).djvu/41

 soon return to his estate, no endeavours on his side should be wanting to do away the prejudice conceived against me. I endeavoured to be content with this assurance; but from that fatal hour, thought I could perceive a change in his disposition; he grew thoughtful, capricious, and often left me for hours alone, without apologizing or accounting for his frequent absences. No letters arrived from my father, nor did I know where to direct to him. The house of the late Abbe was now occupied by a stranger, and it was a million to one if any letters would ever reach us. This reflection gave me great pain, and I often requested the Count to set an inquiry on foot relative to the Polish army, that I might obtain some intelligence of my father's destination. This, he assured me, he had done without effect.

One day he told me, that as his father might soon return, he thought it would be most expedient for him to visit the relation on whose fortune he had such great expectancies, and prevail on him to interest him-