Page:Crotchet Castle - Peacock (1831).djvu/197

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THE VOYAGE.
185

fied with the assurance that you alone, of all men, have ever broken my rest. To be sure, it was only for about three nights in all; but that is too much."

The Captain had le cœur navré. He took his portfolio under his arm, made up the little valise of a pedestrian, and, without saying a word to any one, wandered off at random among the mountains.

After the lapse of a day or two, the Captain was missed, and every one marvelled what was become of him. Mr. Philpot thought he must have been exploring a river, and fallen in and got drowned in the process. Mr. Firedamp had no doubt he had been crossing a mountain bog, and had been suddenly deprived of life by the exhalations of marsh miasmata. Mr. Henbane deemed it probable that he had been tempted in some wood by the large black brilliant berries of