with the other weird and religious parts of her composition, sometimes
snatch her back into barbarian life and its instincts; and in Septimius,
though further diluted, and modified likewise by higher cultivation, there
was the same tendency.

Septimius escaped from the old woman, and was glad to breathe the free air
again; so much had he been wrought upon by her wild legends and wild
character, the more powerful by its analogy with his own; and perhaps,
too, his brain had been a little bewildered by the draught of her
diabolical concoction which she had compelled him to take. At any rate, he
was glad to escape to his hill-top, the free air of which had doubtless
contributed to keep him in health through so long a course of morbid
thought and estranged study as he had addicted himself to.

Here, as it happened, he found both Rose Garfield and Sibyl Dacy, whom the
pleasant summer evening had brought out. They had formed a friendship, or
at least society; and there could not well be a pair more unlike,--the one
so natural, so healthy, so fit to live in the world; the other such a
morbid, pale thing. So there they were, walking arm in arm, with one arm
round each other's waist, as girls love to do. They greeted the young man
in their several ways, and began to walk to and fro together, looking at
the sunset as it came on, and talking of things on earth and in the
clouds.

"When has Robert Hagburn been heard from?" asked Septimius, who, involved
in his own pursuits, was altogether behindhand in the matters of the
war,--shame to him for it!

"There came news, two days past," said Rose, blushing. "He is on his way
home with the remnant of General Arnold's command, and will be here