said he, mildly; "if you are going my way, give me the
benefit of your company."

"My path lies yonder," replied Walter, somewhat sullenly; "I regret that
it is different from yours."

"In that case," said Aram, "I can delay my return home, and will, with
your leave, intrude my society upon you for some few minutes."

Walter bowed his head in reluctant assent. They walked on for some
moments without speaking, the one unwilling, the other seeking an
occasion, to break the silence.

"This to my mind," said Aram at length, "is the most pleasing landscape
in the whole country; observe the bashful water stealing away among the
woodlands. Methinks the wave is endowed with an instinctive wisdom, that
it thus shuns the world."

"Rather," said Walter, "with the love for change which exists everywhere
in nature, it does not seek the shade until it has passed by 'towered
cities,'and 'the busy hum of men.'"

"I admire the shrewdness of your reply," rejoined Aram; "but note how
far more pure and lovely are its waters in these retreats, than when
washing the walls of the reeking town, receiving into its breast the
taint of a thousand pollutions, vexed by the sound, and stench, and
unholy perturbation of men's dwelling-place. Now it glasses only what is
high or beautiful in nature--the stars or the leafy banks. The wind
that ruffles it, is clothed with perfumes; the rivulet that swells it,
descends from the everlasting mountains, or is formed by the rains of
Heaven. Believe me, it is the type of a life that glides into solitude,
from the weariness and fretful turmoil of the world.

'No flattery, hate, or envy lodgeth there, There no suspicion walled in
proved steel, Yet fearful of the arms herself doth wear, Pride is not
there; no tyrant there we feel!'"

[Phineas Fletcher.]

"I will not cope with you in simile, or in poetry," said Walter, as his
lip curved; "it is enough for me to think that life should be spent in
action. I hasten to prove if my judgment be erroneous."

"Are you, then, about to leave us?" inquired Aram.

"Yes, within a few days."

"Indeed, I regret to hear it."

The answer sounded jarringly on the irritated nerves of the disappointed
rival.

"You do me more honour than I desire," said he, "in interesting
yourself, however lightly, in my schemes or fortune!"

"Young man," replied Aram, coldly, "I never see the impetuous and
yearning spirit of youth without a certain, and it may be, a painful
inter