As the shuddering feeling of what Tom had escaped passed off, we both
thought it would be better to say nothing about it. We knew that he had
acted foolishly; and I felt that I ought to have known better, and then
soon enough, boy like, we forgot it all.
For there was a bright future spread before us, and I began to wonder
how it was that with such lovely places on the face of the earth, people
could be content to live in old England. There, seen through the bright
transparent atmosphere, were convent, cathedral, castle, and tower,
grouped at the foot of a mountain, glistening with endless tints as it
towered up nine thousand feet, wall and battlement running up the spurs
of the great eminence.
The scene was lovely, and I was in raptures then with all that lay
before me, and again I asked myself how people could be content in
chilly Europe; but I soon understood all that.