The father's refusal was
followed by the elopement of the young couple,--an act which blasted the
only remaining hope of the misanthrope. His heart was too sensitive to
endure the shock.
Reduced to the depths of despair, suicide presented itself as the only
effectual remedy for his misfortunes. But the church, to whose rites
and promises he yielded the most devoted reverence, doomed the suicide
to eternal woe!
Society, into which for a brief period he had allowed himself to be
enticed, was ten-fold more distasteful to him than before. He could not
endure even that which the practice of his profession demanded. The
great city seemed a pandemonium, and he resolved to escape from its
hated scenes.
He travelled up the river in search of seclusion, and accidentally had
noticed the island upon which he afterwards fixed his residence.
His abode upon the island was not entirely unknown to the inhabitants of
his vicinity; yet they seldom troubled him with their presence. Steamers
and flat-boats continually passed his little domain; yet the traveller
knew not that it was occupied by human beings.
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