ove all, if by any search
for materials necessary to thy toils thou shouldst venture hither,
forbear to light the naphtha in those vessels, and to open the vases on
yonder shelves. I leave the key of the room in thy keeping, in order to
try thy abstinence and self-control. Young man, this very temptation is
a part of thy trial."

With that, Mejnour placed the key in his hands; and at sunset he left
the castle.

For several days Glyndon continued immersed in employments which
strained to the utmost all the faculties of his intellect. Even the most
partial success depended so entirely on the abstraction of the mind, and
the minuteness of its calculations, that there was scarcely room for any
other thought than those absorbed in the occupation. And doubtless this
perpetual strain of the faculties was the object of Mejnour in works
that did not seem exactly pertinent to the purposes in view. As the
study of the elementary mathematics, for example, is not so profitable
in the solving of problems, useless in our after-callings, as it is
serviceable in training the intellect to the comprehension and analysis
of general truths.

But in less than half the time which Mejnour had stated for the duration
of his absence, all that the mystic had appointed to his toils was
completed by the pupil; and then his mind, thus relieved from the
drudgery and mechanism of employment, once more sought occupation in dim
conjecture and restless fancies. His inquisitive and rash nature grew
excited by the prohibition of Mejnour, and he found himself gazing
too often, with perturbed and daring curiosity, upon the key of the
forbidden chamber. He began to feel indignant at a trial of constancy
which he deemed frivolous and puerile. What nursery tales of Bluebeard
and his closet were revived to daunt and terrify him! How could the
mere walls of a chamber, in which he had so often securely pursued his
labours, start into living danger? If haunted, it could be but by those
delusions which Mejnour had taught him to despise,--a shadowy lion,--a
chemical phantasm! Tush! he lost half his awe of Mejnour, when he
thought that by such tricks the sage could practise upon the very
intellect he had awakened and instructed! Still he resisted the impulses
of his curiosity and his pride, and, to escape from their dictation, he
took long rambles on the hills, or amidst the valleys that surrounded
the castle,--seeking by bodily fatigue to subdue the unreposing min