"Bendel," said I, "these level many
ways, and make easy many things which appeared quite impossible; don't
be stingy with it, as I am not, but go and rejoice thy master with the
intelligence on which his only hope depends."
He went. He returned late and sorrowful. None of the people of Mr.
John, none of his guests, and he had spoken with all, were able, in
the remotest degree, to recollect the man in the gray coat. The new
telescope was there, and no one knew whence it had come; the carpet,
the tent were still there spread and pitched on the selfsame hill;
the servants boasted of the affluence of their master, and no one
knew whence these new valuables had come to him. He himself took his
pleasure in them, and did not trouble himself because he did not know
whence he had them. The young gentlemen had the horses, which they had
ridden, in their stables, and they praised the liberality of Mr. John
who on that day made them a present of them. Thus much was clear from
the circumstantial relation of Bendel, whose active zeal and able
proceeding, although with such fruitless result, received from me
their merited commendation. I gloomily motioned him to leave me alone.
"I have," began he again, "given my master an account of the matter
which was most important to him. I have yet a message to deliver which
a person gave me whom I met at the door as I went out on the business
in which I have been so unfortunate.
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