The dispositions of the young man were so excellent that he combated, by reason and religion, the fits of gloom which at times overcast his mind, and it was not till he attained the commencement of his twenty-first year that they assumed a character which made his father tremble for the consequences.  It seemed as if the gloomiest and most hideous of mental maladies was taking the form of religious despair.  Still the youth was gentle, courteous, affectionate, and submissive to his father’s will, and resisted with all his power the dark suggestions which were breathed into his mind, as it seemed by some emanation of the Evil Principle, exhorting him, like the wicked wife of Job, to curse God and die.

The time at length arrived when he was to perform what was then thought a long and somewhat perilous journey, to the mansion of the early friend who had calculated his nativity.  His road lay through several places of interest, and he enjoyed the amusement of travelling more than he himself thought would have been possible.  Thus he did not reach the place of his destination till noon on the day preceding his birthday.  It seemed as if he had been carried away with an unwonted tide of pleasurable sensation, so as to forget in some degree what his father had communicated concerning the purpose of his journey.  He halted at length before a respectable but solitary old mansion, to which he was directed as the abode of his father’s friend.

The servants who came to take his horse told him he had been expected for two days.  He was led into a study, where the stranger, now a venerable old man, who had been his father’s guest, met him with a shade of displeasure, as well as gravity, on his brow.  ‘Young man,’ he said, ’wherefore so slow on a journey of such importance?’ ‘I thought,’ replied the guest, blushing and looking downward,’ that there was no harm in travelling slowly and satisfying my curiosity, providing I could reach your residence by this day; for such was my father’s charge.’  ‘You were to blame,’ replied the sage, ’in lingering, considering that the avenger of blood was pressing on your footsteps.  But you are come at last, and we will hope for the best, though the conflict in which you are to be engaged will be found more dreadful the longer it is postponed.  But first accept of such refreshments as nature requires to satisfy, but not to pamper, the appetite.’

The old man led the way into a summer parlour, where a frugal meal was placed on the table.  As they sat down to the board they were joined by a young lady about eighteen years of age, and so lovely that the sight of her carried off the feelings of the young stranger from the peculiarity and mystery of his own lot, and riveted his attention to everything she did or said.  She spoke little and it was on the most serious subjects.  She played on the harpsichord at her father’s command, but it was hymns with which she accompanied the instrument.  At length, on a sign from the sage, she left the room, turning on the young stranger as she departed a look of inexpressible anxiety and interest.