solicitous for a compensation
for what they had already imparted; and, recollecting the loneliness
of the place, and the vagabond character of his companions, he was
glad to give them a gratuity, and to hasten homewards.

He sat down to his studies, but his brain was too full of what he had
seen and heard; his eye was upon the page, but his fancy still
returned to the tower; and he was continually picturing the little
window, with the beautiful head peeping out; or the door half open,
and the nymph-like form within. He retired to bed, but the same object
haunted his dreams. He was young and susceptible; and the excited
state of his feelings, from wandering among the abodes of departed
grace and gallantry, had predisposed him for a sudden impression from
female beauty.

The next morning, he strolled again in the direction of the tower. It
was still more forlorn, by the broad glare of day, than in the gloom
of evening. The walls were crumbling, and weeds and moss were growing
in every crevice. It had the look of a prison, rather than a
dwelling-house. In one angle, however, he remarked a window which
seemed an exception to the surrounding squalidness. There was a
curtain drawn within it, and flowers standing on the window-stone.
Whilst he was looking at it, the curtain was partially withdrawn, and
a delicate white arm, of the most beautiful roundness, was put forth
to water the flowers.

The student made a noise, to attract the attention of the fair
florist. He succeeded. The curtain was further drawn, and he had a
glance of the same lovely face he had seen the evening before; it was
but a mere glance--the curtain again fell, and the casement closed.
All this was calculated to excite the feelings of a romantic youth.
Had he seen the unknown under other circumstances, it is probable that
he would not have been struck with her beauty; but this appearance of
being shut up and kept apart, gave her the value of a treasured gem.
He passed and repassed before the house several times in the course of
the day, but saw nothing more. He was there again in the evening. The
whole aspect of the house was dreary. The narrow windows emitted no
rays of cheerful light, to indicate that there was social life within.
Antonio listened at the portal, but no sound of voices reached his
ear. Just then he heard the clapping to of a distant door, and fearing
to be detected in the unworthy act of eavesdropping, he precipitately
drew off to the