n, with all their changes of faith and
purpose and manners and costume. To a man who loved to dwell in the
past, there could not be a more congenial scene. One old oak stood in
the centre of one of the green platforms, and a portion of its gnarled
roots presented a convenient seat. Mr. Falconer had frequently passed a
day here when alone. The deer had become too accustomed to him to fly at
his approach, and the dog had been too well disciplined to molest them.
There he had sat for hours at a time, reading his favourite poets.

[Illustration: Reading his favourite poets. 107-77]

There was no great poet with some of whose scenes this scenery did not
harmonise. The deep woods that surrounded the dwelling of Circe, the
obscure sylvan valley in which Dante met Virgil, the forest depths
through which Angelica fled, the enchanted wood in which Rinaldo met the
semblance of Armida, the forest-brook by which Jaques moralised over the
wounded deer, were all reproduced in this single spot, and fancy peopled
it at pleasure with nymphs and genii, fauns and satyrs, knights and
ladies, friars, foresters, hunters, and huntress maids, till the whole
diurnal world seemed to pass away like a vision. There, for him, Matilda
had gathered flowers on the opposite bank;{1} Laura had risen from one
of the little pools--resting-places of the stream--to seat herself
in the shade;{2} Rosalind and Maid Marian had peeped forth from their
alleys green; all different in form, in feature, and in apparel; but now
they were all one; each, as she rose in imagination, presented herself
under the aspect of the newly-known Morgana.

1 Dante: Purgatorio, c. 28.

2 Or in forma di Ninfa o d' altra Diva,
Che del piu chiaro fondo di Sorga esca,
E pongasi a seder in sulla riva.
PETRARCA: Sonetto 240.

Finding his old imaginations thus disturbed, he arose and walked home.
He dined alone, drank a bottle of Madeira, as if it had been so much
water, summoned the seven sisters to the drawing-room earlier
and detained them later than usual, till their music and its old
associations had restored him to something like tranquillity. He had
always placed the _summum bonum_ of life in tranquillity, and not in
excitement. He felt that his path was now crossed by a disturbing force,
and determined to use his utmost exertions to avoid exposing himself
again to its influence.

In this mood the Reverend Doctor Opimian found