He at length agreed to accept of the services of the student, and once more to renew his experiments.  He objected, however, to using the student’s gold, notwithstanding that his own was nearly exhausted; but this objection was soon overcome; the student insisted on making it a common stock and common cause;—­and then how absurd was any delicacy about such a trifle, with men who looked forward to discovering the philosopher’s stone!

While, therefore, the alchymist was slowly recovering, the student busied himself in getting the laboratory once more in order.  It was strewed with the wrecks of retorts and alembics, with old crucibles, boxes and phials of powders and tinctures, and half-burnt books and manuscripts.

As soon as the old man was sufficiently recovered, the studies and experiments were renewed.  The student became a privileged and frequent visitor, and was indefatigable in his toils in the laboratory.  The philosopher daily derived new zeal and spirits from the animation of his disciple.  He was now enabled to prosecute the enterprise with continued exertion, having so active a coadjutor to divide the toil.  While he was poring over the writings of Sandivogius, and Philalethes, and Dominus de Nuysment, and endeavouring to comprehend the symbolical language in which they have locked up their mysteries, Antonio would occupy himself among the retorts and crucibles, and keep the furnace in a perpetual glow.

With all his zeal, however, for the discovery of the golden art, the feelings of the student had not cooled as to the object that first drew him to this ruinous mansion.  During the old man’s illness, he had frequent opportunities of being near the daughter; and every day made him more sensible to her charms.  There was a pure simplicity, and an almost passive gentleness, in her manners; yet with all this was mingled something, whether mere maiden shyness, or a consciousness of high descent, or a dash of Castilian pride, or perhaps all united, that prevented undue familiarity, and made her difficult of approach.  The danger of her father, and the measures to be taken for his relief, had at first overcome this coyness and reserve, but as he recovered and her alarm subsided, she seemed to shrink from the familiarity she had indulged with the youthful stranger, and to become every day more shy and silent.

Antonio had read many books, but this was the first volume of womankind that he had ever studied.  He had been captivated with the very title-page; but the further he read, the more he was delighted.  She seemed formed to love; her soft black eye rolled languidly under its long silken lashes, and wherever it turned, it would linger and repose; there was tenderness in every beam.  To him alone she was reserved and distant.  Now that the common cares of the sick-room were at an end, he saw little more of her than before his admission to the house.  Sometimes he met her on his way to and from the laboratory, and at such times there was ever a smile and a blush; but, after a simple salutation, she glided on and disappeared.