The lateness of the hour secured me, as I thought, from all interruption.
In this, however, I was mistaken, for Wieland and Pleyel, as I judged by their voices, earnest in dispute, ascended the hill.
"I was not sensible that any inconvenience could possibly have flowed from my former exertion; yet it was followed with compunction, because it was a deviation from a path which I had assigned to myself.

Now my aversion to this means of escape was enforced by an unauthorized curiosity, and by the knowledge of a bushy hollow on the edge of the hill, where I should be safe from discovery.

Into this hollow I thrust myself.
"The propriety of removal to Europe was the question eagerly discussed.
Pleyel intimated that his anxiety to go was augmented by the silence of Theresa de Stolberg.

The temptation to interfere in this dispute was irresistible.

In vain I contended with inveterate habits.