's, Jerome spent most of
his time in the magnificent library. Claude did not watch with
more interest every color of the skies, the trees, the grass, and
the water, to learn from nature, than did this son of a despised
race search books to obtain that knowledge which his early life as
a slave had denied him.
CHAPTER XXXI
THE MYSTERIOUS MEETING.
AFTER more than a fortnight spent in the highlands of Scotland,
Jerome passed hastily through London on his way to the continent.
It was toward sunset, on a warm day in October, shortly after his
arrival in France, that, after strolling some distance from the
Hotel de Leon, in the old and picturesque town of Dunkirk, he
entered a burial ground--such places being always favorite walks
with him--and wandered around among the silent dead. All nature
around was hushed in silence, and seemed to partake of the general
melancholy that hung over the quiet resting-place of the departed.
Even the birds seemed imbued with the spirit of the place, for
they were silent, either flying noiselessly over the graves, or
jumping about in the tall grass. After tracing the various
inscriptions that told the characters and conditions of the
deceased, and viewing the mounds beneath which the dust of
mortality slumbered, he arrived at a secluded spot near where an
aged weeping willow bowed its thick foliage to the ground, as
though anxious to hide from the scrutinizing gaze of curiosity the
grave beneath it. Jerome seated himself on a marble tombstone, and
commenced reading from a book which he had carried under his arm.
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