[Arthur Mervyn by Charles Brockden Brown]@TWC D-Link bookArthur Mervyn CHAPTER VIII 9/31
At length, with some difficulty, I expressed my wishes to leave his house and return into the country. What, he asked, had occurred to suggest this new plan? What motive could incite me to bury myself in rustic obscurity? How did I purpose to dispose of myself? Had some new friend sprung up more able or more willing to benefit me than he had been? "No," I answered, "I have no relation who would own me, or friend who would protect.
If I went into the country it would be to the toilsome occupations of a day-labourer; but even that was better than my present situation." This opinion, he observed, must be newly formed.
What was there irksome or offensive in my present mode of life? That this man condescended to expostulate with me; to dissuade me from my new plan; and to enumerate the benefits which he was willing to confer, penetrated my heart with gratitude.
I could not but acknowledge that leisure and literature, copious and elegant accommodation, were valuable for their own sake; that all the delights of sensation and refinements of intelligence were comprised within my present sphere, and would be nearly wanting in that to which I was going.
I felt temporary compunction for my folly, and determined to adopt a different deportment.
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