superior mind; one who, by the comprehension of his thought, and the
richness of his knowledge, and the advantage of his experience, might
strengthen and illuminate and guide his obscure or hesitating or
unpractised intelligence. He had scarcely been fortunate in this respect,
and he deeply regretted it; for he was one of those who was not content
with excelling in his own circle, if he thought there was one superior to
it. Absolute, not relative distinction, was his noble aim.

Alone, in a lonely scene, he doubly felt the solitude of his life and
mind. His heart and his intellect seemed both to need a companion. Books,
and action, and deep thought, might in time supply the want of that
intellectual guide; but for the heart, where was he to find solace?

Ah! if she would but come forth from that shining lake like a beautiful
Ondine! Ah, if she would but step out from the green shade of that secret
grove like a Dryad of sylvan Greece! O mystery of mysteries, when youth
dreams his first dream over some imaginary heroine!

Suddenly the brooding wildfowl rose from the bosom of the lake, soared in
the air, and, uttering mournful shrieks, whirled in agitated tumult. The
deer started from their knolls, no longer sunny, stared around, and rushed
into the woods. Coningsby raised his eyes from the turf on which they had
been long fixed in abstraction, and he observed that the azure sky had
vanished, a thin white film had suddenly spread itself over the heavens,
and the wind moaned with a sad and fitful gust.

He had some reason to believe that on the other side of the opposite wood
the forest was intersected by a public road, and that there were some
habitations. Immediately rising, he descended at a rapid pace into the
valley, passed the lake, and then struck into the ascending wood on the