career, and from the proudest ends of ordinary ambition I have carried
my gaze into the cloud and darkness that stretch beyond. The instant I
beheld Zicci, I felt as if I had discovered the guide and the tutor for
which my youth had idly languished and vainly burned."

"And to me his duty can be transferred," replied the stranger. "Yonder
lies, anchored in the bay, the vessel in which Zicci seeks a fairer
home; a little while and the breeze will rise, the sail will swell, and
the stranger will have passed like a wind away. Still, like the wind,
he leaves in thy heart the seeds that may bear the blossom and the
fruit. Zicci hath performed his task--he is wanted no more; the
perfecter of his work is at thy side. He comes--I hear the dash of the
oar. You will have your choice submitted to you. According as you
decide, we shall meet again." With these words the stranger moved
slowly away, and disappeared beneath the shadow of the cliffs. A boat
glided rapidly across the waters; it touched land, a man leapt on shore,
and Glyndon recognized Zicci.

"I give thee, Glyndon, I give thee no more the option of happy love and
serene enjoyment. That hour is past, and fate has linked the hand that
might have been thine own to mine. But I have ample gifts to bestow
upon thee if thou wilt abandon the hope that gnaws thy heart, and the
realization of which even I have not the power to foresee. Be thine
ambition human, and I can gratify it to the full. Men desire four
things in life,--love, wealth, fame, power. The first I cannot give
thee,--no matter why; the rest are at my disposal. Select which of them
thou wilt, and let us part in peace."

"Such are not the gifts I covet: I choose knowledge, which indeed, as
the schoolman said, is power, and the loftiest; that knowledge must be