the
road through a gap in the hedge, he made towards the group in question.
He had not proceeded far, before he saw, that the remainder of the
party was composed of Lester's daughters, the lover of the elder, and
a fourth, whom he recognised as a celebrated French botanist who had
lately arrived in England, and who was now making an amateur excursion
throughout the more attractive districts of the island.

The Earl guessed rightly, that Monsieur de N--had not neglected to apply
to Aram for assistance in a pursuit which the latter was known to have
cultivated with such success, and that he had been conducted hither, as
a place affording some specimen or another not unworthy of research. He
now, giving his horse to his groom, joined the group.

CHAPTER III.

WHEREIN THE EARL AND THE STUDENT CONVERSE ON GRAVE BUT
DELIGHTFUL MATTERS.--THE STUDENT'S NOTION OF THE ONLY EARTHLY
HAPPINESS.

ARAM. If the witch Hope forbids us to be wise,
Yet when I turn to these--Woe's only friends,
And with their weird and eloquent voices calm
The stir and Babel of the world within,
I can but dream that my vex'd years at last
Shall find the quiet of a hermit's cell:--
And, neighbouring not this hacked and jaded world,
Beneath the lambent eyes of the loved stars,
And, with the hollow rocks and sparry caves,
The tides, and all the many-music'd winds

My oracles and co-mates;--watch my life
Glide down the Stream of Knowledge, and behold
Its waters with a musing stillness glass
The thousand hues of Nature and of Heaven.
--From Eugene Aram, a MS. Tragedy.

The Earl continued with the party he had joined; and when their
occupation was concluded and they turned homeward, he accepted the
Squire's frank invitation to partake of some refreshment at the
Manor-house. It so chanced, or perhaps the Earl so contrived it, that
Aram and himself, in their way to the village lingered a little behind
the rest, and that their conversation was thus, for a few minutes, not
altogether general.

"Is it I, Mr. Aram?" said the Earl smiling, "or is it Fate that has made
you a convert? The last time we sagely and quietly conferred together,
you contended that the more the circle of existence was contracted, the
more we clung to a state of pure and all self-dependent intellect, the
greater our chance of happiness. Thus you d