the occasion; and to poverty, most of all, my hand never closed. For oh!
what a terrible devil creeps into that man's soul, who sees famine at his
door! One tender act and how many black designs, struggling into life
within, you may crush for ever! He who deems the world his foe, convince
him that he has one friend, and it is like snatching a dagger from his
hand!

"I came to a beautiful and remote part of the country. Walter Lester, I
came to Grassdale!--the enchanting scenery around--the sequestered and
deep retirement of the place arrested me at once. 'And among these
valleys,' I said, 'will I linger out the rest of my life, and among these
quiet graves shall mine be dug, and my secret shall die with me!'

"I rented the lonely house in which I dwelt when you first knew me--
thither I transported my books and instruments of science. I formed new
projects in the vast empire of wisdom, and a deep quiet, almost amounting
to content, fell like a sweet sleep upon my soul!

"In this state of mind, the most free from memory and from the desire to
pierce the future that I had known for twelve years, I first saw Madeline
Lester. Even with that first time a sudden and heavenly light seemed to
dawn upon me. Her face--its still--its serene--its touching beauty,
shone upon me like a vision. My heart warmed as I saw it--my pulse seemed
to wake from its even slowness. I was young once more. Young! the youth,
the freshness, the ardour--not of the frame only, but of the soul. But I
then only saw, or spoke to her--scarce knew her--not loved her--nor was
it often that we met. When we did so, I felt haunted, as by a holy
spirit, for the rest of the day--an unquiet yet delicious emotion
agitated all within--the south wind stirred the dark waters of my mind,
but it passed, and all became hushed again. It was not for two years from