If her habits are such as I have known them, she is
probably often to be met with in the woods, or by the river-side; and
I think you could do me the favor to point out some favorite walk,
where, about this hour, I might be fortunate enough to gain an
interview."
I reflected that it would be quite a supererogatory piece of
Quixotism in me to undertake the guardianship of Zenobia, who, for my
pains, would only make me the butt of endless ridicule, should the
fact ever come to her knowledge. I therefore described a spot which,
as often as any other, was Zenobia's resort at this period of the day;
nor was it so remote from the farmhouse as to leave her in much
peril, whatever might be the stranger's character.
"A single word more," said he; and his black eyes sparkled at me,
whether with fun or malice I knew not, but certainly as if the Devil
were peeping out of them. "Among your fraternity, I understand,
there is a certain holy and benevolent blacksmith; a man of iron, in
more senses than one; a rough, cross-grained, well-meaning individual,
rather boorish in his manners, as might be expected, and by no means
of the highest intellectual cultivation. He is a philanthropical
lecturer, with two or three disciples, and a scheme of his own, the
preliminary step in which involves a large purchase of land, and the
erection of a spacious edifice, at an expense considerably beyond his
means; inasmuch as these are to be reckoned in copper or old iron
much more conveniently than in gold or silver.
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