a wall
between them and us, merely by different modifications of matter."

"And think you that wall never can be removed?" asked young Glyndon,
abruptly. "Are the traditions of sorcerer and wizard, universal and
immemorial as they are, merely fables?"

"Perhaps yes,--perhaps no," answered the stranger, indifferently. "But
who, in an age in which the reason has chosen its proper bounds, would
be mad enough to break the partition that divides him from the boa and
the lion,--to repine at and rebel against the law which confines the
shark to the great deep? Enough of these idle speculations."

Here the stranger rose, summoned the attendant, paid for his sherbet,
and, bowing slightly to the company, soon disappeared among the trees.

"Who is that gentleman?" asked Glyndon, eagerly.

The rest looked at each other, without replying, for some moments.

"I never saw him before," said Mervale, at last.

"Nor I."

"Nor I."

"I know him well," said the Neapolitan, who was, indeed, the Count
Cetoxa. "If you remember, it was as my companion that he joined you.
He visited Naples about two years ago, and has recently returned; he is
very rich,--indeed, enormously so. A most agreeable person. I am sorry
to hear him talk so strangely to-night; it serves to encourage the
various foolish reports that are circulated concerning him."

"And surely," said another Neapolitan, "the circumstance that occurred
but the other day, so well known to yourself, Cetoxa, justifies the
reports you pretend to deprecate."

"Myself and my countryman," said Glyndon, "mix so little in Neapolitan
society, that we lose much that appears well worthy of lively interest.
May I enquire what are the reports, and what is the circumstance you
refer to?"

"As to the reports, gentlemen," said Cetoxa, courteously, addressing
himself to the two Englishmen, "it may suffice to observe, that they
attribute to the Signor Zanoni certain qualities which everybody desires
for himself, but damns any one else for possessing. The incident Signor
Belgioso alludes to, illustrates these qualities, and is, I must own,
somewhat startling. You probably play, gentlemen?" (Here Cetoxa paused;
and as both Englishmen had occasionally staked a few scudi at the public
gaming-tables, they bowed assent to the conjecture.) Cetoxa continued.
"Well, then, not many days since, and on the very day that Zanoni
returned to Naples, it so happened that I had been playing pretty high,
and ha