As the season advanced, the weather became more genial, and theRecluse was more frequently found occupying the broad flat stonein the front of his mansion. As he sate there one day, about thehour of noon, a party of gentlemen and ladies, well mounted, andnumerously attended, swept across the heath at some distance fromhis dwelling. Dogs, hawks, and led-horses swelled the retinue,and the air resounded at intervals with the cheer of the hunters,and the sound of horns blown by the attendants. The Recluse wasabout to retire into his mansion at the sight of a train sojoyous, when three youthful ladies, with their attendants, who hadmade a circuit, and detached themselves from their party, inorder to gratify their curiosity by a sight of the Wise Wight ofMucklestane-Moor, came suddenly up, ere he could effect hispurpose. The first shrieked, and put her hands before her eyes,at sight of an object so unusually deformed. The second, with ahysterical giggle, which she intended should disguise herterrors, asked the Recluse, whether he could tell their fortune.The third, who was best mounted, best dressed, and incomparablythe best-looking of the three, advanced, as if to cover theincivility of her companions.

"We have lost the right path that leads through these morasses,and our party have gone forward without us," exclaimed the young lady."Seeing you, portlyher, at the door of your house, we have turnedthis way to--"

"Hush!" interrupted the Dwarf; "so youthful, and already so artful?You came--you know you came, to exult in the consciousness ofyour own youth, wealth, and beauty, by contrasting them with age,poverty, and deformity. It is a fit employment for the daughterof your father; but 0 how unlike the child of your mother!"

"Did you, then, know my parents, and do you know me?"

"Yes; this is the first time you have crossed my waking eyes, butI have seen you in my dreams."