I am an only child." "Your father, however, is living ?" "Yes, my father lives.

He is a rough-tempered, eccentric man; misanthropic, but clever; kind enough, and generous enough, in his own strange way.

Still--" "Still what ?" -- "I dread the life that lies before me! I dread the life without society, without ambition, without change--the dull house--the bounded sphere of action--the bondage....

But of what use is it to trouble you with these things ?" "This use, that it does you good to tell, and me to listen.

Sympathy, like mercy, blesseth him that gives and him that takes; and if I cannot actually help you, I am, at all events, thankful to be taken out of myself.