ecially as he grew to
be a youth in his teens, and yet no bigger, no stronger, and scarcely
less helpless than a child, the young earl would let fall a word or two
which showed that he was fully and painfully aware of his own condition,
and all that it entailed. It was evident that he had thought much and
deeply of the future which lay before him. If, as now appeared
probable, he should live to man's estate, his life must, at best, be one
long endurance, rendered all the sharper and harder to bear because
within that helpless body dwelt a soul, which was, more than that of
most men, alive to every thing beautiful, noble, active, and good.

However, though he occasionally betrayed these workings of his mind, it
was only to Helen, and not to her very much, for he was exceedingly
self-contained from his childhood. He seemed to feel by instinct that
to him had been allotted a special solitude of existence, into which,
try as tenderly as they would, none could ever fully penetrate, and with
which none could wholly sympathize. It was inevitable in the nature of
things.

He apparently accepted the fact as such, and did not attempt to break
through it. He took the strongest interest in other people, and in
every thing around him, but he did not seem to expect to have the like
returned in any great degree. Perhaps it was one of those merciful
compensations that what he could not have he was made strong enough to
do without.

So things went on, without any other variety than an occasional visit
from Mr. Menteith or Dr. Hamilton, for seven years, during which the
minister's pupil had acquired every possible learning that his teacher
could give, and was fast becoming less a scholar than an equal companion
and friend--so familiar and dear, that Mr. Cardross, like all who
knew him, had long since almost forgotten that the earl was--what he
was. It seemed the most natural thing in the world that he should sit
there in his little chair, doing nothing; absolutely passive to all
physical things; but interested in every thing and every body, and,
whether at the Manse or the Castle, as completely one of the circle as
if he took the most active part therein. Consulted by one, appealed to
by another, joked by a third--he was ever ready with a joke--it
was only when strangers happened to see him, and were startled by the
sight, that his own immediate friends recognized how different he was
from other people.

It was one day when