The Last Man by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
page 86 of 524 (16%)
page 86 of 524 (16%)
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peasant would have disdained my scanty fare, which I sometimes robbed from
the squirrels of the forest. I was, I own, often tempted to recur to the lawless feats of my boy-hood, and knock down the almost tame pheasants that perched upon the trees, and bent their bright eyes on me. But they were the property of Adrian, the nurslings of Idris; and so, although my imagination rendered sensual by privation, made me think that they would better become the spit in my kitchen, than the green leaves of the forest, Nathelesse, I checked my haughty will, and did not eat; but supped upon sentiment, and dreamt vainly of "such morsels sweet," as I might not waking attain. But, at this period, the whole scheme of my existence was about to change. The orphan and neglected son of Verney, was on the eve of being linked to the mechanism of society by a golden chain, and to enter into all the duties and affections of life. Miracles were to be wrought in my favour, the machine of social life pushed with vast effort backward. Attend, O reader! while I narrate this tale of wonders! One day as Adrian and Idris were riding through the forest, with their mother and accustomed companions, Idris, drawing her brother aside from the rest of the cavalcade, suddenly asked him, "What had become of his friend, Lionel Verney?" "Even from this spot," replied Adrian, pointing to my sister's cottage, "you can see his dwelling." "Indeed!" said Idris, "and why, if he be so near, does he not come to see |
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