Page:Tragical history of George Barnwell (2).pdf/11

 part of them; all the land on this ſide the elder trees belongs to the next eſtate." George aſked the name of the owner? "Mr. Mental, the cynic whom you ſaw yeſterday at my houſe. What do you start at nephew?" —— "Nothing Sir, (replied the youth, heſitating.) but Mr Mental is a ſtrange man." —— "Ah! God forgive him. ſaid Joſeph.) if all that people ſay be true" —— "God cannot forgive him rejoined the Chaplain) he is an Atheiſt" "He is undoubtedly, a ſingular being, ſaid the Knight) and people will talk, although nobody, it ſeems, knows who or what he is. But I have heard old men, who remember his firſt coming to reſide here, whiſper ſtrange ſtories."

After a fruitleſs ſearch, the party returned home. A variety of conjectures were raiſed in the fertile brain of the youth, all pointing to Mental. He conceived him to be the man he had ſeen at the tomb on the preceding night; he imagined the voice he had heard to be that gentleman's; and built on theſe impreſſions a ſuſpicion to the diſadvantage of his character. Then his heart rebuked him for ſo illiberal a concluſion from a train of mere accidents; he recollected the invitation he had received, and reſolved immediately to viſit him. He kept his intended viſit a ſecret from the family, and merely obſerved, that he was going to take a ſtroll round the village. The reſidence of Mr. Mental was a large old faſhioned houſe, containing many rooms, of which three only were in uſe; one ſerved as a kitchen and chamber for an old woman, his only domestic;