as," he said with a downcast look, and a smile, half simple and
half intelligent, "that these ladies, pained in conscience, who were
ever lodged in the apartments now occupied by the noble Canoness, should
have some space for taking the air, secure from the intrusion of the
profane. But of late years," he added, "this prohibition, although not
formally removed, has fallen entirely out of observance, and remains
but as the superstition which lingers in the brain of a superannuated
gentleman usher. If you please," he added, "we will presently descend,
and try whether the place be haunted or no."

Nothing could have been more agreeable to Quentin than the prospect of
a free entrance into the garden, through means of which, according to a
chance which had hitherto attended his passion, he hoped to communicate
with, or at least obtain sight of, the object of his affections, from
some such turret or balcony window, or similar "coign of vantage," as at
the hostelry of the Fleur de Lys, near Plessis, or the Dauphin's Tower,
within that Castle itself. Isabelle seemed still destined, wherever she
made her abode, to be the Lady of the Turret.

[Coign of vantage: an advantageous position for observation or action.
Cf. 'no jutty, frieze, buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle.' Macbeth, I, vi, 6.]

When Durward descended with his new friend into the garden, the latter
seemed a terrestrial philosopher, entirely busied with the things of the
earth, while the eyes of Quentin, if they did not seek the heavens,
like those of an astrologer, ranged, at least, all around the windows,
balconies, and especially the turrets, which projected on every part
from the inner front of the old building, in order to discover that
which was to be his cynosure.

While thus employed, the young lover heard with total neglect, if indeed
he heard at all, the enumeration of plants, herbs, and shrubs which his
reverend conductor pointed out to him, of which this was choice, because
of prime use in medicine, and that more choice for yielding a rare
flavour to pottage, and a third, choicest of all, because possessed of
no merit but its extreme scarcity. Still it was necessary to preserve
some semblance at least of attention, which the youth found so
difficult, that he fairly wished at the devil the officious naturalist
and the whole vegetable kingdom. He was relieved at length by the
striking of a clock, w