dily forgo his promist fortune, if Balthasar would only afford him
some degree of support in his plans for his future life. He again
however called upon him as a father to consider the unsuitable, nay
the shocking nature of the projected match. He conjured him to look at
the happiness of his child with a steadier, more impartial eye. At the
same time he begged for another, a last interview, and said he had a
request which the old man must needs grant him, if he would have him
leave the mountains with honour, with peace of mind, and without
repenting of the years he had past there.

* * * * *

It was with a very heavy heart that Edward went to his old master. The
whole destiny of mankind lay darkly and with a crushing weight upon
his breast. Anguishing was the conviction he felt, that in the very
sweetest and purest innocence all the roots of evil and sin were
already lurking, and that there needed only chance and caprice to
foster their growth, for them to put forth their calamitous fruits.
His situation was so completely changed, his chief wish was that the
house which had so long been his home, the country he was become so
fond of, were but far behind him, that gradually and with a steady
hand he might eraze all the recollections of the time he had spent
there. He was resolved that at all events he would not be a witness of
the disasters to which, he was persuaded, the dark spirits brooding
there must infallibly give birth; that he would not stay to behold
them; for he did not feel sure of being so firm, that his own passion
and frailty might not lend a hand in bringing down the impending ruin.
Heartily as at this moment he abhorred such a thought, he yet knew
full well from observation and experience that no man is always the
same, and that even the best are not braced with the same strength at
all hours: he knew how the sophistry of our passions will come athwart
all our good feelings and resolves, and that the more secure they feel
the more easily it trips them up and overthrows them.

He found the old man in a serious mood, but without the agitation he
had feared. "Come and shake hands with me," cried Balthasar as he
entered, "although you choose to leave me. How I shall support your
absence I cannot yet conceive, anymore than I should know how I could
live without light and warmth: but nevertheless I shall be forced to
learn this lesson, if nothing can alter or upset your determin