West Point
had enough natural beauty to satisfy; any one, I thought, even
for all summer; and there I had besides what I had not
elsewhere and never had before, a companion. All my earlier
friends were far older than I, or beneath me in station.
Preston was the single exception; and Preston and I were now
widely apart in our sympathies; indeed always had been. Mr.
Thorold and I talked to each other on a level; we understood
each other and suited each other. I could let out my thoughts
to him with a freedom I never could use with anybody else.
It grieved me a little that I had been forced to come away so
abruptly that I had no chance of letting him know. Courtesy, I
thought, demanded of me that I should have done this; and I
could not do it; and this was a constant subject of regret to
me.
At the end of our journey I came back to school. Letters from
my father and mother desired that I would do so, and appointed
that I was to join them abroad next year. My mother had
decided that it was best not to interfere with the regular
course of my education; and my father renewed his promise that
I should have any reward I chose to claim, to comfort me for
the delay.
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