being of blood and bone with
themselves,--yet he must be in close league with the invisible world,
and have chosen that sequestered spot to carry on his communication with
them undisturbed. They insisted, though in a different sense from the
philosopher's application of the phrase, that he was never less alone
than when alone; and that from the heights which commanded the moor at
a distance, passengers often discovered a person at work along with
this dweller of the desert, who regularly disappeared as soon as they
approached closer to the cottage. Such a figure was also occasionally
seen sitting beside him at the door, walking with him in the moor, or
assisting him in fetching water from his fountain. Earnscliff explained
this phenomenon by supposing it to be the Dwarf's shadow.

"Deil a shadow has he," replied Hobbie Elliot, who was a strenuous
defender of the general opinion; "he's ower far in wi' the Auld Ane to
have a shadow. Besides," he argued more logically, "wha ever heard of a
shadow that cam between a body and the sun? and this thing, be it what
it will, is thinner and taller than the body himsell, and has been seen
to come between him and the sun mair than anes or twice either."

These suspicions, which, in any other part of the country, might have
been attended with investigations a little inconvenient to the supposed
wizard, were here only productive of respect and awe. The recluse being
seemed somewhat gratified by the marks of timid veneration with which
an occasional passenger approached his dwelling, the look of startled
surprise with which he surveyed his person and his premises, and the
hurried step with which he pressed his retreat as he passed the awful
spot. The boldest only stopped to gratify their curiosity by a hasty
glance at the walls of his cottage and garden, and to apologize for it
by a courteous salutation, which the inmate sometimes deigned to return
by a word or a nod. Earnscliff often passed that way, and seldom without
enquiring after the solitary inmate, who seemed now to have arranged his
establishment for life.

It was impossible to engage him in any conversation on his own personal
affairs; nor was he communicative or accessible in talking on any other
subject whatever, although he seemed to have considerably relented in
the extreme ferocity of his misanthropy, or rather to be less frequently
visited with the fits of derangement of which this was a symptom. No
argument could pre