"Do you think so ill of him ?--Do you suppose that, hermit as he is, he has lost common humanity?
But lean more on me, dearest; you do not know how strong I am!" Thus alternately chiding, caressing, and encouraging her sister, Ellinor led on the sufferer, till they had crossed the plain, though with slowness and labour, and stood before the porch of the Recluse's house.
They had looked back from time to time, but the cause of so much alarm appeared no more.

This they deemed a sufficient evidence of the justice of their apprehensions.
Madeline would even now fain have detained her sister's hand from the bell that hung without the porch half imbedded in ivy; but Ellinor, out of patience--as she well might be--with her sister's unseasonable prudence, refused any longer delay.

So singularly still and solitary was the plain around the house, that the sound of the bell breaking the silence, had in it something startling, and appeared in its sudden and shrill voice, a profanation to the deep tranquillity of the spot.
They did not wait long--a step was heard within--the door was slowly unbarred, and the Student himself stood before them.
He was a man who might, perhaps, have numbered some five and thirty years; but at a hasty glance, he would have seemed considerably younger.
He was above the ordinary stature; though a gentle, and not ungraceful bend in the neck rather than the shoulders, somewhat curtailed his proper advantages of height.

His frame was thin and slender, but well knit and fair proportioned.

Nature had originally cast his form in an athletic mould; but sedentary habits, and the wear of mind, seemed somewhat to have impaired her gifts.