ful, and he leads so secluded
a life, that I cannot but think my father's conversation and society, if
he would but encourage it, might afford some relief to his solitude."

"And he always seems," observed Ellinor, "to take pleasure in my
father's conversation, as who would not? how his countenance lights up
when he converses! it is a pleasure to watch it. I think him positively
handsome when he speaks."

"Oh, more than handsome!" said Madeline, with enthusiasm, "with that
high, pale brow, and those deep, unfathomable eyes!"

Ellinor smiled, and it was now Madeline's turn to blush.

"Well," said the former, "there is something about him that fills one
with an indescribable interest; and his manner, if cold at times, is yet
always so gentle."

"And to hear him converse," said Madeline, "it is like music. His
thoughts, his very words, seem so different from the language and ideas
of others. What a pity that he should ever be silent!"

"There is one peculiarity about his gloom, it never inspires one
with distrust," said Ellinor; "if I had observed him in the same
circumstances as that ill-omened traveller, I should have had no
apprehension."

"Ah! that traveller still runs in your head. If we were to meet him in
this spot."

"Heaven forbid!" cried Ellinor, turning hastily round in alarm--and, lo!
as if her sister had been a prophet, she saw the very person in question
at some little distance behind them, and walking on with rapid strides.

She uttered a faint shriek of surprise and terror, and Madeline, looking
back at the sound, immediately participated in her alarm. The spot
looked so desolate and lonely, and the imagination of both had been
already so worked upon by Ellinor's fears, and their conjectures
respecting the ill-boding weapon she had witnessed, that a thousand
apprehensions of outrage and murder crowded at once upon the minds of
the two sisters. Without, however, giving vent in words to their alarm,
they, as by an involuntary and simultaneous suggestion, quickened their
pace, every moment stealing a glance behind, to watch the progress of
the suspected robber. They thought that he also seemed to accelerate his
movements; and this observation increased their terror, and would appear
indeed to give it some more rational ground. At length, as by a sudden
turn of the road they lost sight of the dreaded stranger, their alarm
suggested to them but one resolution, and they fairly fled on as fast as
the fe