that William had again gone off suddenly and
without assigning any cause. "I am glad of it," answered the old man;
"I always took him for our thief, and winkt hard in looking at him,
that I might not ruin him utterly: this indulgence however must have
come to an end. I was exceedingly fond of him, and for that very
reason only hated him the more."

"How do you mean?" asked the young man.

"Why," replied the other, "foolishly enough I felt charmed by his
countenance, by the soft sound of his voice, by his whole look and
air: this perverse sympathy will keep following us everywhere. I took
a liking to him: and catching my heart in this piece of folly, I
punisht myself by conceiving a downright aversion to the fellow, as we
should and must do to everything we are greatly delighted with."

Edward wanted to ask further questions, but the striking of the clock
called him to his business, and being dismist by the old man he went
away, with a multitude of thoughts concerning this singular
conversation, to meditate further upon it at leisure.

* * * * *

Whenever Edward's thoughts now recurred, as they often did, to the
nature of his situation, that and every thing connected with it, the
appointment which had fixt him in this secluded spot, the business he
was engaged in, as well as the persons with whom he had to hold
intercourse, appeared to him in a light totally different from before.
He was loth to acknowledge to himself how forcibly and singularly his
imagination had been wrought upon by his late discourse with Rose.
Hitherto he had only lookt on her as a pleasing child; but now the
lovely girl became an object to which expectations and silent hopes
attacht themselves: he watcht her more attentively; he talked oftener
to her and more at length; and the budding of her youthful soul, the
frank artlessness of her thoughts, interested his heart more and more.
And then, when he recollected the hideous, sallow-faced Eleazar, with
his surly morose temper, and thought that this tender flower had
already in secret devoted herself as a sacrifice to so odious a
creature, his anger was moved by this absurd project, which at other
times again he could not help smiling at. Eleazar had been absent for
some days past. He had not taken much pains to conceal that he was
going into the lonely, remote parts of the mountains in search of
those marks which he had read of in the master miner's book. This
abs