it?" he asked. "That is myself when I was young. My--my boy
will be like that, like, but nobler; with such health as angels might
condescend to envy; and a man of mind, Asenath, of commanding mind. That
should be a man, I think; that should be one among ten thousand. A man
like that--one to combine the passions of youth with the restraint, the
force, the dignity of age--one to fill all the parts and faculties, one
to be man's epitome--say, will that not satisfy the needs of an
ambitious girl? Say, is not that enough?" And as he held the picture
close before my eyes, his hand shook.

I told him briefly I would ask no better, for I was transpierced with
this display of fatherly emotion; but even as I said the words, the most
insolent revolt surged through my arteries. I held him in horror, him,
his portrait, and his son; and had there been any choice but death or a
Mormon marriage, I declare before Heaven I had embraced it.

"It is well," he replied, "and I had rightly counted on your spirit.
Eat, then, for you have far to go." So saying, he set meat before me;
and while I was endeavouring to obey, he left the room and returned with
an armful of coarse raiment. "There," said he, "is your disguise. I
leave you to your toilet."

The clothes had probably belonged to a somewhat lubberly boy of fifteen;
and they hung about me like a sack, and cruelly hampered my movements.
But what filled me with uncontrollable shudderings was the problem of
their origin and the fate of the lad to whom they had belonged. I had
scarcely effected the exchange when the doctor returned, opened a back
window, helped me out into the narrow space between the house and the
overhanging bluffs, and showed me a ladder of iron foot-holds mortised
in the rock. "Mount," he said, "swiftly. When you are at the summit,
walk, so far as you are able, in the shadow of the smoke. The smoke will
bring you, sooner or later, to a canon; follow that down, and you will
find a man with two horses. Him you will implicitly obey. And remember,
silence! That machinery which I now put in motion for your service may
by one word be turned against you. Go; Heaven prosper you!"

The ascent was easy. Arrived at the top of the cliff, I saw before me
on the other side a vast and gradual declivity of stone, lying bare to
the moon and the surrounding mountains. Nowhere was any vantage or
concealment; and knowing how these deserts were beset with spies, I made
haste to veil my move