'Proud girl!' I exclaimed, 'you need not
fear that such a miserable wretch will claim your relationship, or
disturb your enjoyment of congenial society.'
"When Satan can find entrance into the soul for such wicked thoughts,
they soon drive out all better ones; and, before I had reached the
tailor's shop to which I was going, I had determined never to return
home.
"Without taking any notice of the letter I had received from Louisa, I
secured a berth immediately in a vessel bound for the Pacific, and for
three years again deserted my native land.
"About eighteen months after this ship sailed, we fell in with a
man-of-war, and I went on board. The moment that I saw the captain I
recognized in him the officer whom I had seen with my sister in New
York. For once the love of home was stronger than my pride, and I asked
anxiously if he could tell me any thing of Miss Louisa Colman.
"The instant that I made this inquiry, the captain gave me a keen,
scrutinizing glance, and then replied quickly,--'You are the brother
Richard, I presume, of whose fate Miss Colman has been so long
uncertain?'
"I was taken too much by surprise to deny this fact, and Captain Hall
continued,--'I had the pleasure of becoming intimate in Dr. Colman's
family, and my wife is devotedly attached to your sweet sister. Through
her I heard of your absence from home, and the grief it had given to all
who loved you.
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