Chapter 10

"Sitting then in shelter shady,
To observe and mark his mone.
Suddenly I saw a lady
Hasting to him all alone,
Clad in maiden-white and green,
Whom I judged the Forest Queen."
-THE WOODMAN'S BEAR.

During several weeks succeeding her danger and deliverance, Ellen Langton
was confined to her chamber by illness, resulting from the agitation she
had endured. Her father embraced the earliest opportunity to express his
deep gratitude to Fanshawe for the inestimable service he had rendered,
and to intimate a desire to requite it to the utmost of his power. He had
understood that the student's circumstances were not prosperous, and, with
the feeling of one who was habituated to give and receive a _quid pro
quo_ he would have rejoiced to share his abundance with the deliverer
of his daughter. But Fanshawe's flushed brow and haughty eye, when he
perceived the thought that was stirring in Mr. Langton's mind,
sufficiently proved to the discerning merchant that money was not, in the
present instance, a circulating medium. His penetration, in fact, very
soon informed him of the motives by which the young man had been actuated
in risking his life for Ellen Langton; but he made no allusion to the
subject, concealing his intentions, if any he had, in his own bosom.

During Ellen's illness, Edward Walcott had manifested the deepest anxiety
respecting her: he had wandered around and within the house, like a
restless ghost, informing himself of the slightest fluctuation in her
health, and thereby graduating his happiness or misery. He was at length
informed that her convalescence had so far progressed, that, on the
succeeding day, she would venture below. From that time Edward's visits to
Dr. Melmoth's mansion were relinquished. His cheek grew pale and his eye
lost its merry light; but he resolutely kept himself a banished man.
Multifarious were the conjectures to which this course of conduct gave
rise; but Ellen understood and approved his motives. The maiden must have
been far more blind than ever woman was in such a matter, if the late
events had not convinced her of Fanshawe's devoted attachment; and she saw
that Edward Walcott, feeling the superior, the irresistible strength of
his rival's claim, had retired from the field. Fanshawe, however,
discovered no intention to pursue his advantage. He paid her no voluntary
visit, and even declined an invitation to tea, with which Mrs. Melmoth,
after extensive preparations, had favored him. He seemed to have resumed
all the habits of seclusion by which he was distinguished previous to his
acquaintance with Ellen, except that he still took his sunset walk on the
banks of the stream.

On one of these occasions, he stayed his footsteps by the old