But we have
feelings, for the exercise of which sympathy and imagination can
create conditions. We can feel with the captive in the dungeon,
without going down there to take a place by his side."
"Still, there is nothing like experience in one's own person," said
Mrs. Shortridge. "I can now sympathize fully with the toilworn
traveler, across a parched and thirsty desert, under a broiling sun. I
own that the pleasures of this journey far exceed its pains, thanks to
your care and company; but, as Lady Mabel says, the chief pleasure
comes afterward, and this journey will be still more pleasant next
week than now."
"In spite of its hardships," said Lady Mabel, "it has been so
agreeable to me, that I would have it last a week longer. As an
escort, interpreter, and cicerone, Colonel L'Isle has no rival. He
has, too, filled the commissary's place so well, that we have suffered
nothing from your good man's desertion."
The pleasure Lady Mabel expressed, and her frank admission that she
wished the journey longer, delighted L'Isle. He longed to tell her
that he was ever at her command as companion, guardian, and guide on
any journey, however long.
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