But man is a strange animal.  We cannot calculate on his forces like that of an engine; and, though an impulse draw with a forty-horse power at what appears willing to yield to one, yet in contempt of calculation the movement is not effected.  Neither grief, philosophy, nor love could make Perdita think with mildness of the dereliction of Raymond.  She now took pleasure in my society; towards Idris she felt and displayed a full and affectionate sense of her worth—­she restored to her child in abundant measure her tenderness and care.  But I could discover, amidst all her repinings, deep resentment towards Raymond, and an unfading sense of injury, that plucked from me my hope, when I appeared nearest to its fulfilment.  Among other painful restrictions, she has occasioned it to become a law among us, never to mention Raymond’s name before her.  She refused to read any communications from Greece, desiring me only to mention when any arrived, and whether the wanderers were well.  It was curious that even little Clara observed this law towards her mother.  This lovely child was nearly eight years of age.  Formerly she had been a light-hearted infant, fanciful, but gay and childish.  After the departure of her father, thought became impressed on her young brow.  Children, unadepts in language, seldom find words to express their thoughts, nor could we tell in what manner the late events had impressed themselves on her mind.  But certainly she had made deep observations while she noted in silence the changes that passed around her.  She never mentioned her father to Perdita, she appeared half afraid when she spoke of him to me, and though I tried to draw her out on the subject, and to dispel the gloom that hung about her ideas concerning him, I could not succeed.  Yet each foreign post-day she watched for the arrival of letters—­knew the post mark, and watched me as I read.  I found her often poring over the article of Greek intelligence in the newspaper.

There is no more painful sight than that of untimely care in children, and it was particularly observable in one whose disposition had heretofore been mirthful.  Yet there was so much sweetness and docility about Clara, that your admiration was excited; and if the moods of mind are calculated to paint the cheek with beauty, and endow motions with grace, surely her contemplations must have been celestial; since every lineament was moulded into loveliness, and her motions were more harmonious than the elegant boundings of the fawns of her native forest.  I sometimes expostulated with Perdita on the subject of her reserve; but she rejected my counsels, while her daughter’s sensibility excited in her a tenderness still more passionate.

After the lapse of more than a year, Adrian returned from Greece.