Ellen now listened intently anxious to catch some other sound, than
the breathing of the morning air, which faintly rustled the herbage at
her feet. She was about to turn in disappointment from the enquiry,
when the tread of human feet making their way through the matted grass
met her ear. Springing eagerly forward, she soon beheld the outlines
of a figure advancing up the eminence, on the side opposite to the
camp. She had already uttered the name of Paul, and was beginning to
speak in the hurried and eager voice with which female affection is
apt to greet a friend, when, drawing back, the disappointed girl
closed her salutation by coldly adding--"I did not expect, Doctor, to
meet you at this unusual hour."
"All hours and all seasons are alike, my good Ellen, to the genuine
lover of nature,"--returned a small, slightly made, but exceedingly
active man, dressed in an odd mixture of cloth and skins, a little
past the middle age, and who advanced directly to her side, with the
familiarity of an old acquaintance; "and he who does not know how to
find things to admire by this grey light, is ignorant of a large
portion of the blessings he enjoys.
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