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Cooper, James Fenimore, 1789-1851

"The Spy"

"
"Indeed, I can easily comprehend the mortification you must have felt in
having one so self-willed to deal with," returned the surgeon, glancing
his eyes reproachfully at his comrade. "But you should rise superior to
such opinions, and pity the ignorance by which they are engendered."
The housekeeper hesitated a moment, at a loss to comprehend all that the
surgeon expressed, yet she felt it was both complimentary and kind;
therefore, suppressing her natural flow of language a little, she
replied,--
"I tell Harvey his conduct is often condemnable, and last night he made
my words good; but the opinions of such unbelievers is not very
consequential; yet it is dreadful to think how he behaves at times: now,
when he threw away the needle--"
"What!" said the surgeon, interrupting her, "does he affect to despise
the needle? But it is my lot to meet with men, daily, who are equally
perverse, and who show a still more culpable disrespect for the
information that flows from the lights of science."
The doctor turned his face towards Captain Lawton while speaking, but
the elevation of the head prevented his eyes from resting on the grave
countenance maintained by the trooper. Katy listened with admiring
attention, and when the other had done, she added,--
"Then Harvey is a disbeliever in the tides.


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