I passed it as negligently as I did the pollard willow opposite to it: I had no presentiment of what it would be to me; no inward warning that the arbitress of my life--my genius for good or evil--waited there in humble guise.

I did not know it, even when, on the occasion of Mesrour's accident, it came up and gravely offered me help.

Childish and slender creature! It seemed as if a linnet had hopped to my foot and proposed to bear me on its tiny wing.

I was surly; but the thing would not go: it stood by me with strange perseverance, and looked and spoke with a sort of authority.

I must be aided, and by that hand: and aided I was.
"When once I had pressed the frail shoulder, something new--a fresh sap and sense--stole into my frame.