pen
to my gaze. Long ago my converse and companionship were with the
learned doctors and sages of the East. In Spain I have walked in the
palace of the Moorish kings, the Alhambra at Grenada; and in Arabia I
have learned the mystic cabala, and worshipped in the temple of the
holy prophet!"

"And yet thou comest a beggar to my door! Truly thy spells have
profited thee little."

The beggar smiled scornfully. "Riches inexhaustible, unlimited are
mine; while nature is unveiled at my command."

"Thou speakest riddles, old man; or thou dost hug the very spectres of
thy brain, which men call madness."

"I am not mad; save it be madness that I have not hurled thee from
this thy misgotten heritage. A power of mighty and all prevading
energy hath hindered me, and, it may be, rescued thee from
destruction."

"Unto what unknown intercessor do I owe this forbearance?"

"Love!" said the mendicant, with an expression of withering and
baneful scorn; "a silly hankering for a puling girl."

"Thee!--in love?"

"And is it so strange, so hard and incapable of belief, that in a
frosty but vigorous age, the sap should be fresh though the outward
trunk look withered and without verdure?"

Nicholas shuddered. A harrowing suspicion crossed him that his beloved
sister had fallen a victim to the lawless passions of this hoary
delinquent.

"Thou dost judge wrongfully," said the beggar; "she appertaineth not
to me. 'Tis long since I have drunk of that maddening cup, a woman's
love. Would that another had not taken its intoxicating draught."

"Thou but triflest with me," said Haworth; "let the maiden go, or
beware my vengeance."

"Thy vengeance! Weak, impotent man! what canst thou do? Thy threats I
hold lighter than the breath that makes them; thy cajolments I value
less than these; and thy rewards--why, the uttermost wealth that thou
couldst boast would weigh but as a feather against the riches at my
disposal."

"Then give her back at my request."

"I tell thee she is not mine, nor in my charge."

"But thou knowest of her detention, and where she is concealed."

"What if I do? will that help thee to the discovery?"

"Point out the place, or conduct me thither, and"----

The mendicant here burst forth into a laugh so tantalising and
malicious that Nicholas, though silent, grew pale with choler.

"Am I a fool?" said the exorcist; "an everyday fool? a simpleton of
such a dastardly condition that thou shouldest think to whine m