And, turn the matter as he would, he could not regard his suit as desperate.

There was something of embarrassment as well as of grave surprise in her look when Oldbuck presented him--and, perhaps, upon second thoughts, the one was assumed to cover the other.

He would not relinquish a pursuit which had already cost him such pains.

Plans, suiting the romantic temper of the brain that entertained them, chased each other through his head, thick and irregular as the motes of the sun-beam, and, long after he had laid himself to rest, continued to prevent the repose which he greatly needed.

Then, wearied by the uncertainty and difficulties with which each scheme appeared to be attended, he bent up his mind to the strong effort of shaking off his love, "like dew-drops from the lion's mane," and resuming those studies and that career of life which his unrequited affection had so long and so fruitlessly interrupted.