g! I beg pardon, Madam, is Mr.
Aram--Eugene Aram, within?"

"No," said Madeline faintly, and then, sensible that her voice did not
reach him, she reiterated the answer in a louder tone. The man, as if
satisfied, made a rude inclination of his head and withdrew from the
window. Ellinor now returned, and with difficulty Madeline found words
to explain to her what had passed. It will be conceived that the two
young ladies watched the arrival of their father with no lukewarm
expectation; the stranger however appeared no more; and in about an
hour, to their inexpressible joy, they heard the rumbling sound of the
old coach as it rolled towards the house. This time there was no delay
in unbarring the door.

CHAPTER IV.

THE SOLILOQUY, AND THE CHARACTER, OF A RECLUSE.--THE
INTERRUPTION.

"Or let my lamp at midnight hour
Be seen in some high lonely tower,
Where I may oft outwatch the Bear,
Or thrice-great Hermes, and unsphere
The spirit of Plato."
--Milton.--Il Penseroso.

As Aram assisted the beautiful Madeline into the carriage--as he
listened to her sweet voice--as he marked the grateful expression of her
soft eyes--as he felt the slight yet warm pressure of her fairy hand,
that vague sensation of delight which preludes love, for the first time,
in his sterile and solitary life, agitated his breast. Lester held out
his hand to him with a frank cordiality which the scholar could not
resist.

"Do not let us be strangers, Mr. Aram," said he warmly. "It is not often
that I press for companionship out of my own circle; but in your company
I should find pleasure as well as instruction. Let us break the ice
boldly, and at once. Come and dine with me to-morrow, and Ellinor shall
sing to us in the evening."

The excuse died upon Aram's lips. Another glance at Madeline conquered
the remains of his reserve: he accepted the invitation, and he could
not but mark, with an unfamiliar emotion of the heart, that the eyes of
Madeline sparkled as he did so.

With an abstracted air, and arms folded across his breast, he gazed
after the carriage till the winding of the valley snatched it from his
view. He then, waking from his reverie with a start, turned into the
house, and carefully closing and barring the door, mounted with slow
steps to the lofty chamber with which, the better to indulge his
astronomical researches, he had crested his lonely