ght the alchemists have ascribed life and youth to the draught!

"You must forgive me, Excellency, for disturbing you," said Paolo,
producing a letter from his pouch; "but our Patron has just written to
me to say that he will be here to-morrow, and desired me to lose not a
moment in giving to yourself this billet, which he enclosed."

"Who brought the letter?"

"A horseman, who did not wait for any reply."

Glyndon opened the letter, and read as follows:--

"I return a week sooner than I had intended, and you will expect me
to-morrow. You will then enter on the ordeal you desire, but remember
that, in doing so, you must reduce Being as far as possible into Mind.
The senses must be mortified and subdued,--not the whisper of one
passion heard. Thou mayst be master of the Cabala and the Chemistry; but
thou must be master also over the Flesh and the Blood,--over Love
and Vanity, Ambition and Hate. I will trust to find thee so. Fast and
meditate till we meet!"

Glyndon crumpled the letter in his hand with a smile of disdain. What!
more drudgery,--more abstinence! Youth without love and pleasure! Ha,
ha! baffled Mejnour, thy pupil shall gain thy secrets without thine aid!

"And Fillide! I passed her cottage in my way,--she blushed and sighed
when I jested her about you, Excellency!"

"Well, Paolo! I thank thee for so charming an introduction. Thine must
be a rare life."

"Ah, Excellency, while we are young, nothing like adventure,--except
love, wine, and laughter!"

"Very true. Farewell, Maestro Paolo; we will talk more with each other
in a few days."

All that morning Glyndon was almost overpowered with the new sentiment
of happiness that had entered into him. He roamed into the woods, and
he felt a pleasure that resembled his earlier life of an artist, but a
pleasure yet more subtle and vivid, in the various colours of the
autumn foliage. Certainly Nature seemed to be brought closer to him; he
comprehended better all that Mejnour had often preached to him of the
mystery of sympathies and attractions. He was about to enter into the
same law as those mute children of the forests. He was to know THE
RENEWAL OF LIFE; the seasons that chilled to winter should yet bring
again the bloom and the mirth of spring. Man's common existence is as
one year to the vegetable world: he has his spring, his summer, his
autumn, and winter,--but only ONCE. But the giant oaks round him go
through a revolving series of verdure and you