ide to think it."

"Then go,--go at once; come back no more till thou hast wound up thy
courage to brave the sacrifice; no, not till the priest is ready at the
altar, not till the bridegroom can claim the bride. And as that time
will never come--never--never--leave me to whisper to the breaking
heart, 'Courage; honour and virtue are left thee yet, and thy mother
from heaven looks down on a stainless child!'"

The resuscitation of the dead could scarcely have startled and awed
the courtier more than this abrupt development of life and passion and
energy in a man who had hitherto seemed to sleep in the folds of his
thought, as a chrysalis in its web. But as we have always seen that
ever, when this strange being woke from his ideal abstraction, he awoke
to honour and courage and truth, so now, whether, as he had said, the
absence of the Eureka left his mind to the sense of practical duties,
or whether their common suffering had more endeared to him his gentle
companion, and affection sharpened reason, Adam Warner became puissant
and majestic in his rights and sanctity of father,--greater in his
homely household character, than when, in his mania of inventor, and
the sublime hunger of aspiring genius, he had stolen to his daughter's
couch, and waked her with the cry of "Gold!"

Before the force and power of Adam's adjuration, his outstretched
hand, the anguish, yet authority, written on his face, all the art
and self-possession of the accomplished lover deserted him, as one
spell-bound.

He was literally without reply; till, suddenly, the sight of Sibyll,
who, surprised by this singular conference, but unsuspecting its nature,
now came from the house, relieved and nerved him; and his first impulse
was then, as ever, worthy and noble, such as showed, though dimly, how
glorious a creature he had been, if cast in a time and amidst a race
which could have fostered the impulse into habit.

"Brave old man!" he said, kissing the hand still raised in command,
"thou hast spoken as beseems thee; and my answer I will tell thy child."
Then hurrying to the wondering Sibyll, he resumed: "Your father says
well, that not thus, dubious and in secret, should I visit the home
blest by thy beloved presence. I obey; I leave thee, Sibyll. I go to
my king, as one who hath served him long and truly, and claims his
guerdon,--thee!"

"Oh, my lord!" exclaimed Sibyll, in generous terror, "bethink thee well;
remember what thou saidst but last ev