emulous leaves, some sudden glimpse of a sportive rivulet
below, he would halt, point it out to us in silence, and with a kind
of childlike ecstasy in his own bright face, that seemed to reflect the
life and the bliss of the blithe summer day itself.

Thus seen, all my doubts in his dark secret nature faded away,--all my
horror, all my hate; it was impossible to resist the charm that breathed
round him, not to feel a tender, affectionate yearning towards him as to
some fair happy child. Well might he call himself the Darling of Nature.
Was he not the mysterious likeness of that awful Mother, beautiful as
Apollo in one aspect, direful as Typhon in another?

CHAPTER L.

"What a strange-looking cane you have, sir!" said a little girl, who was
one of the party, and who had entwined her arm round Margrave's. "Let me
look at it."

"Yes," said Strahan, "that cane, or rather walking-staff, is worth
looking at. Margrave bought it in Egypt, and declares that it is very
ancient."

This staff seemed constructed from a reed: looked at, it seemed light,
in the hand it felt heavy; it was of a pale, faded yellow, wrought
with black rings at equal distances, and graven with half obliterated
characters that seemed hieroglyphic. I remembered to have seen Margrave
with it before, but I had never noticed it with any attention until now,
when it was passed from hand to hand. At the head of the cane there was
a large unpolished stone of a dark blue.

"Is this a pebble or a jewel?" asked one of the party.

"I cannot tell you its name or nature," said Margrave; "but it is said
to cure the bite of serpents(1), and has other supposed virtues,--a
talisman, in short."

He here placed the staff in my hands, and bade me look at it with care.
Then he changed the conversation and renewed the way, leaving the
staff with me, till suddenly I forced it back on him. I could not have
explained why, but its touch, as it warmed in my clasp, seemed to send
through my whole frame a singular thrill, and a sensation as if I no
longer felt my own weight,--as if I walked on air.

Our rambles came to a close; the visitors went away; I re-entered the
house through the sash-window of Forman's study. Margrave threw his hat
and staff on the table, and amused himself with examining minutely the
tracery on the mantelpiece. Strahan and myself left him thus occupied,
and, going into the adjoining library, resumed our task of examining the
plans for the new h