" "You forget, aunt," replied
Horatio, "that the swallow has already commenced his spring habitation
beneath the housings of our bed-room window, that the long summer
evenings will soon be here, and then how delightful would be the society
of an intelligent friend to accompany us in our evening perambulations
through the park, to chat away half an hour with in the hermitage, or to
hold converse on your favourite subject botany, and run through all the
varieties of the _camelia japonica_, or the _magnolia fuscata_; then
too, I will confess, my own selfishness in the proposition, the pleasure
of my friend's company in my fishing excursions, would divest my
favourite amusement of its solitary character." ~106~~ My aunt nodded
assent, drew the cowl of her ancient silk cloak over the back part
of her head, and, with a half-closed eye, muttered out, in tones of
sympathy, her fullest accordance in the proposed arrangement. "I have
only one more trifle to read," said Horatio, "before I conclude the
history of our school-boy days." "We had better have the bed-candles,"
said my aunt. "You had better hear the conclusion, aunt," said
Horatio, "and then we can commence the English Spy with the evening
of to-morrow." My aunt wanted but little excitement to accede to the
request, and that little was much exceeded in the promise of Horatio's
reading Bernard's new work on the succeeding evening, when she had
calculated on being left in solitary singleness by her nephew's visit to
the county ball.
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