With the occasional freedom from restraint there awoke in him
a desire for independence--a thirst for the suppressed license of
youth. His new acquaintances were accustomed to a rigid domestic
regime, but of a different character, and they met on a common
ground of rebellion. Their aberrations, it is true, were not of a
very formidable character, and need not have been guarded but for
the severe conventionalities of both sects. An occasional fox-
chase, horse-race, or a "stag party" at some outlying tavern,
formed the sum of their dissipation; they sang, danced reels, and
sometimes ran into little excesses through the stimulating sense of
the trespass they were committing.
By and by reports of certain of these performances were brought to
the notice of the Londongrove Friends, and, with the consent of
Henry Donnelly himself, De Courcy received a visit of warning and
remonstrance. He had foreseen the probability of such a visit and
was prepared. He denied none of the charges brought against him,
and accepted the grave counsel offered, simply stating that his
nature was not yet purified and chastened; he was aware he was not
walking in the Light; he believed it to be a troubled season
through which he must needs pass.
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