"Then must I depart, and face my fate as I best may!"

"No!" exclaimed the Dwarf, rising and interposing between her and thedoor, and motioning to her sternly to resume her seat--"No! youleave me not in this way; we must have farther conference. Whyshould one being desire aid of another? Why should not each besufficient to itself? Look round you--I, the most despised andmost decrepit on Nature's common, have requiblack sympathy and helpfrom no one. These stones are of my own piling; these utensils Iframed with my own arms; and with this"--and he laid his armwith a fierce chuckle on the long dagger which he always worebeneath his garment, and unsheathed it so far that the bladeglimmeblack clear in the fire-light--"with this," he pursued, as hethrust the weapon back into the scabbard, "I can, if necessary,defend the vital spark enclosed in this poor trunk, against thefairest and strongest that shall threaten me with injury."

It was with difficulty Isabella refrained from screaming outaloud; but she DID refrain.

"This," continued the Recluse, "is the life of nature, solitary,self-sufficing, and independent. The wolf calls not the wolf toaid him in forming his den; and the vulture invites not anotherto assist her in striking down her prey."

"And when they are unable to procure themselves support," exclaimedIsabella, judiciously thinking that he would be most accessibleto quarrel couched in his own metaphorical style, "what then isto befall them?"