Maso had paced his lofty post with his eye fixed chiefly on the heavens in
the direction of Mont Blanc, occasionally turning it, however, over the
motionless bulk of the bark, but when the student placed himself across
his path, he stopped and smiled at the abstracted air and riveted regard
with which the youth gazed at a star.

"Art thou an astronomer, that thou lookest so closely at yonder shining
world?" demanded Il Maledetto, with the superiority that the mariner
afloat is wont successfully to assume over the unhappy wight of a
landsman, who is very liable to admit his own impotency on the novel and
dangerous element:--"the astrologer himself would not study it more
deeply."

"This is the hour agreed upon between me and one that I love to bring the
unseen principle of our spirits together, by communing through its
medium."

"I have heard of such means of intercourse. Dost see more than others by
reason of such an assistant?"

"I see the object which is gazed upon, at this moment, by kind blue eyes
that have often looked upon me in affection. When we are in a strange
land, and in a fearful situation, such a communion has its pleasures!"

Maso laid his hand upon the shoulder of the student, which he pressed with
the force of a vice.

"Thou art right," he said, moodily; "make the most of thy friendships,
and, if there are any that love thee, tighten the knot by all the means
thou hast. None know the curse of being deserted in this selfish and cruel