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Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 1804-1864

"Passages from the American Notebooks, Volume 1"


One of the passengers was a young man who had been in Pennsylvania,
keeping a school,--a genteel enough young man, but not a gentleman. He
took neither supper nor breakfast, excusing himself from one as being
weary with riding all day, and from the other because it was so early.
He attacked me for a subscription for "building up a destitute church,"
of which he had taken an agency, and had collected two or three hundred
dollars, but wanted as many thousands. Betimes in the morning, on the
descent of a mountain, we arrived at a house where dwelt the married
sister of the young man, whom he was going to visit.
He alighted, saw his trunk taken off, and then, having perceived his
sister at the door, and turning to bid us farewell, there was a broad
smile, even a laugh of pleasure, which did him more credit with me than
anything else; for hitherto there had been a disagreeable scornful twist
upon his face, perhaps, however, merely superficial. I saw, as the stage
drove off, his comely sister approaching with a lighted-up face to greet
him, and one passenger on the front seat beheld them meet.


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