pose that, hermit as he is, he has lost common humanity? But lean
more on me, dearest; you do not know how strong I am!"

Thus alternately chiding, caressing, and encouraging her sister, Ellinor
led on the sufferer, till they had crossed the plain, though with
slowness and labour, and stood before the porch of the Recluse's house.
They had looked back from time to time, but the cause of so much alarm
appeared no more. This they deemed a sufficient evidence of the justice
of their apprehensions.

Madeline would even now fain have detained her sister's hand from the
bell that hung without the porch half imbedded in ivy; but Ellinor,
out of patience--as she well might be--with her sister's unseasonable
prudence, refused any longer delay. So singularly still and solitary
was the plain around the house, that the sound of the bell breaking the
silence, had in it something startling, and appeared in its sudden and
shrill voice, a profanation to the deep tranquillity of the spot.
They did not wait long--a step was heard within--the door was slowly
unbarred, and the Student himself stood before them.

He was a man who might, perhaps, have numbered some five and thirty
years; but at a hasty glance, he would have seemed considerably younger.
He was above the ordinary stature; though a gentle, and not ungraceful
bend in the neck rather than the shoulders, somewhat curtailed his
proper advantages of height. His frame was thin and slender, but well
knit and fair proportioned. Nature had originally cast his form in
an athletic mould; but sedentary habits, and the wear of mind, seemed
somewhat to have impaired her gifts. His cheek was pale and delicate;
yet it was rather the delicacy of thought than of weak health. His hair,
which was long, and of a rich and deep brown, was worn back from his
face and temples, and left a broad high majestic forehead utterly
unrelieved and bare; and on the brow there was not a single wrinkle, it
was as smooth as it might have been some fifteen years ago. There was
a singular calmness, and, so to speak, profundity, of thought, eloquent
upon its clear expanse, which suggested the idea of one who had passed
his life rather in contemplation than emotion. It was a face that a
physiognomist would have loved to look upon, so much did it speak both
of the refinement and the dignity of intellect.

Such was the person--if pictures convey a faithful resemblance--of a
man, certainly the most eminent in his day f