e myself for this--that I yielded to it
with pain and with self-reproach--that I shall think hereafter of what I
unconsciously cost you with remorse--then be consoled!"

"It is enough," said Walter; "let us part. I leave you with more
soreness at my late haste than I will acknowledge, let that content you;
for myself, I ask for no apology or--."

"But you shall have it amply," interrupted Aram, advancing with a
cordial openness of mien not usual to him. "I was all to blame; I should
have remembered you were an injured man, and suffered you to have said
all you would. Words at best are but a poor vent for a wronged and
burning heart. It shall be so in future, speak your will, attack,
upbraid, taunt me, I will bear it all. And indeed, even to myself
there seems some witchcraft, some glamoury in what has chanced. What! I
favoured where you love? Is it possible? It might teach the vainest
to forswear vanity. You, the young, the buoyant, the fresh, the
beautiful?--And I, who have passed the glory and zest of life between
dusty walls; I who--well, well, fate laughs at probabilities!"

Aram now seemed relapsing into one of his more abstracted moods; he
ceased to speak aloud, but his lips moved, and his eyes grew fixed in
reverie on the ground. Walter gazed at him for some moments with mixed
and contending sensations. Once more, resentment and the bitter wrath
of jealousy had faded back into the remoter depths of his mind, and a
certain interest for his singular rival, despite of himself, crept into
his breast. But this mysterious and fitful nature, was it one in which
the devoted Madeline would certainly find happiness and repose?--would
she never regret her choice? This question obtruded itself upon him,
and while he sought to answer it, Aram, regaining his composure, turned
abruptly and offered him his hand. Walter did not accept it, he bowed
with a cold respect. "I cannot give my hand without my heart," said he;
"we were foes just now; we are not friends yet. I am unreasonable in
this, I know, but--"

"Be it so," interrupted Aram; "I understand you. I press my good will on
you no more. When this pang is forgotten, when this wound is healed,
and when you will have learned more of him who is now your rival, we may
meet again with other feelings on your side."

Thus they parted, and the solitary lamp which for weeks past had been
quenched at the wholesome hour in the Student's home, streamed from the
casement throughout t