the whole village was alive and bustling with terror
and consternation. Another, and a yet more daring robbery, had been
committed in the neighbourhood, and the police of the county town had
been summoned, and were now busy in search of the offenders. Aram had
been early disturbed by the officious anxiety of some of his neighbours;
and it wanted yet some hours of noon, when Lester himself came to seek
and consult with the Student.

Aram was alone in his large and gloomy chamber, surrounded, as usual,
by his books, but not as usual engaged in their contents. With his face
leaning on his hand, and his eyes gazing on a dull fire, that crept
heavily upward through the damp fuel, he sate by his hearth, listless,
but wrapt in thought.

"Well, my friend," said Lester, displacing the books from one of the
chairs, and drawing the seat near the Student's--"you have ere this
heard the news, and indeed in a county so quiet as ours, these outrages
appear the more fearful, from their being so unlooked for. We must set
a guard in the village, Aram, and you must leave this defenceless
hermitage and come down to us; not for your own sake,--but consider you
will be an additional safeguard to Madeline. You will lock up the house,
dismiss your poor old governante to her friends in the village, and walk
back with me at once to the hall."

Aram turned uneasily in his chair.

"I feel your kindness," said he after a pause, "but I cannot accept
it--Madeline," he stopped short at that name, and added in an altered
voice; "no, I will be one of the watch, Lester; I will look to her--to
your--safety; but I cannot sleep under another roof. I am superstitious,
Lester--superstitious. I have made a vow, a foolish one perhaps, but I
dare not break it. And my vow binds me, save on indispensable and urgent
necessity, not to pass a night any where but in my own home."

"But there is necessity."

"My conscience says not," said Aram smiling: "peace, my good friend, we
cannot conquer men's foibles, or wrestle with men's scruples."

Lester in vain attempted to shake Aram's resolution on this head; he
found him immoveable, and gave up the effort in despair.

"Well," said he, "at all events we have set up a watch, and can spare
you a couple of defenders. They shall reconnoitre in the neighbourhood
of your house, if you persevere in your determination, and this will
serve in some slight measure to satisfy poor Madeline."

"Be it so," replied Aram; "and