Read "Fanshawe" by Nathaniel Hawthorne online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Why, all delights are vain, but that most vain, Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain: As painfully to pore upon a book To seek the light of truth, while truth, the while, Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look. " SHAKESPEARE.
On one of the afternoons which afforded to the students a relaxation from their usual labors, Ellen was attended by her cavalier in a little excursion over the rough bridle-roads that led from her new residence. She was an experienced equestrian, -- a necessary accomplishment at that period, when vehicles of every kind were rare. It was now the latter end of spring; but the season had hitherto been backward, with only a few warm and pleasant days. The present afternoon, however, was a delicious mingling of spring and summer, forming in their union an atmosphere so mild and pure, that to breathe was almost a positive happiness. There was a little alternation of cloud across the brow of heaven, but only so much as to render the sunshine more delightful.