on ciphers and cryptic writing, but being drawn to it only by his
curiosity respecting whatever was hidden, and not expecting ever to use
his knowledge, he had obtained only the barest idea of what was necessary
to the deciphering a secret passage. Judging by what he could pick out, he
would have thought the whole essay was upon the moral conduct; all parts
of that he could make out seeming to refer to a certain ascetic rule of
life; to denial of pleasures; these topics being repeated and insisted on
everywhere, although without any discoverable reference to religious or
moral motives; and always when the author seemed verging towards a
definite purpose, he took refuge in his cipher. Yet withal, imperfectly
(or not at all, rather) as Septimius could comprehend its purport, this
strange writing had a mystic influence, that wrought upon his imagination,
and with the late singular incidents of his life, his continual thought on
this one subject, his walk on the hill-top, lonely, or only interrupted by
the pale shadow of a girl, combined to set him outside of the living
world. Rose Garfield perceived it, knew and felt that he was gliding away
from her, and met him with a reserve which she could not overcome.

It was a pity that his early friend, Robert Hagburn, could not at present
have any influence over him, having now regularly joined the Continental
Army, and being engaged in the expedition of Arnold against Quebec.
Indeed, this war, in which the country was so earnestly and
enthusiastically engaged, had perhaps an influence on Septimius's state of
mind, for it put everybody into an exaggerated and unnatural state, united
enthusiasms of all sorts, heightened everybody either into its own heroism
or into the peculiar madness to which each person was inclined; and
Septimius walked so much the more wildly on his lonely course, because the
people were going enthusiastically on another. In times of revolution and
public disturbance all absurdities are more unrestrained; the measure of
calm sense, the habits, the orderly decency, are partially lost. More