Had other cause been wanting, this sight alone
would have been sufficient to restore his good-humor: and, making a place
for himself, by quietly dispossessing Francois, the domestic of his niece,
the persevering burgher endeavored to encourage an intercourse, that he
had reason to think must terminate in the result he both meditated and
desired.
In the present effort, however, the Alderman failed. There is a feeling
which universally pervades landsmen and landswomen, when they first embark
on an element to which they are strangers, that ordinarily shuts their
mouths and renders them meditative. In the older and more observant
travellers, it is observation and comparison; while with the younger and
more susceptible, it is very apt to take the character of sentiment.
Without stopping to analyze the cause, or the consequences, in the
instance of the Patroon and la belle Barberie, it will be sufficient to
state, that in spite of all the efforts of the worthy burgher, who had
navigated the sluggish creek too often to be the subject of any new
emotions, his youthful companions gradually grew silent and thoughtful.
Though a celibite in his own person, Myndert had not now to learn that the
infant god as often does his mischief through this quiet agency, as in any
other manner. He became, therefore, mute in his turn, watching the slow
movement of the periagua with as much assiduity as if he saw his own
image on the water.
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