My Youth would repine to be bound.
"No musing and longing for me--
I stray thro' the woods as I will.
My heart on its pinions of joy
Soars beyond and above them still!'"
The following evening I was sitting innocently and unsuspiciously with my parents at the tea-table, when I was called out of the room: a friend it seemed wished to speak to me. It was about ten o'clock, and I wondered who could be paying me so late a visit.
When I entered my room I found Sebastian as usual in the grand-paternal arm-chair, but I started when, turning the light on his face, I noticed his pallor and look of despair.
"Is it you?" cried I. "And in such agitation? Has the birthday celebration come to a tragic end?"
"Paul," said he, still motionless, as though some heavy blow had stretched him out there. "All is over! I am a lost man!"
"You will find yourself again, my good fellow," I replied. "Come, let me help to look for you. Tell me all about it to begin with."