ng her of some little ailment with a very simple
remedy. He had been preparing himself to follow his uncle in his
business as apothecary: an avocation far beneath that for which his
natural talents and acquirements would have fitted him; but he was by
nature indolent, and was quite contented to settle down, and eat his
cake betimes.

Mentally, he never had had anything in common with Clement; and on
first coming to the vicarage, he had felt himself in an atmosphere so
oppressive and uncongenial, that he would have left it, after the most
superficial recovery, had not the blind girl, from the first moment he
saw her, appeared to him as a riddle worth his reading.

She had avoided him as much as possible; the first time he had taken
her hand she had withdrawn it, with unaccountable uneasiness, and had
entirely lost the usual composure of her manner. Yet he would remain in
her society for hours, studying her method of apprehending things, and
with a playful kind of importunity which it was not easy to take amiss,
taking note of her ways and means of communication with the outer
world.

He could not understand why Clement appeared to care for her so
little--and Clement would avoid her more than ever when he saw her in
company with Wolf. He would turn pale then, and escape to the distant
forest, where the villagers would often meet him, plunged in most
disconsolate meditations.

One evening, when he was returning from a long discontented walk, where
he had gone too far and lost himself, he met Wolf in a state of more
than natural excitement. He had been paying a long visit to Marlene,
who had fascinated him more than usual; he had then found his way to
the village tavern, where he had drunk enough of the light wine of the
country to make him glad of a cool walk among the fields in the fresh
evening air.

"I say!" he called to Clement. "It may be a good while yet, before you
are so fortunate as to get rid of me; that little blind witch of yours
is a pretty puzzle to me. She is cleverer than a dozen of our town
ladies, who only use their eyes to ogle God and man--and then that
delicious way she has of snubbing me, is a master-piece in itself."

"You may be glad if she ends by making you a little tamer;" said
Clement shortly.

"Tamer! that I shall never be--and that magnificent figure and lovely
face of hers are not calculated to make a fellow tame. Don't believe I
mean to harm her. Only you know, sometimes, I think if