Again he thought of his daughter.
Her image rose before him in the darkened chamber of the sick man, and
seemed to reproach him for his want of faithfulness to her. The incident
and reflections of the previous night had strangely influenced his mind,
and changed the whole current of his impulses and hopes. The solitude of
his lonely island no longer seemed desirable. The world, with all its
vanities and vexations, was the true sphere of life.
The arrival of Jim now summoned him to the relief of Mrs. Swinger.
Calling in the old negro, he gave him some directions in case the
patient should awake, and, taking his case of surgical instruments, he
proceeded to the landing. Unmooring the sail-boat, he took the two
messengers on board, with their boat in tow. The wind was still fresh,
and the yacht, with all her sails spread, bore the doctor rapidly on his
errand of mercy. A strange impulse seemed to animate him,--an impulse of
genuine, heart-felt sympathy towards the whole human family,--a feeling
to which he had before been a stranger.
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