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The year that folloas a long one to Haldane He ed to keep the even tenor of his way, but it was often as the soldierfor and holding, step by step, with difficulty His intense application in his first year of study and the excitements of the previous years at last told upon him, and he often experienced days of extreme lassitude and weariness At one time he was quite ill, and then he realized how lonely and isolated he was He still kept his quarters at the here, but Mr Growther, with the kindest intentions, was too old and decrepit to prove ination began to retouch the shadowy ie of Laura Romeyn with an ideal beauty In his pain and weakness her character of watcher--in which her self-sacrificing devotion had been so great as to impair her health--was peculiarly attractive She became to him a pale and lovely saint, too remote and sacred for his human love, and yet sufficiently huretful pain that he could never reach her side He now learned from its loss how valuable Mrs Arnot's society had been to him Her letters, which were full and moderately frequent, could not take the place of her quiet yet inspiriting voice
He was lonely, and he recognized the fact While there were hundreds now in Hillaton ished hile, he was too shadowed by disgraceful memories to be received socially into the homes that he would care to visit Some of the church people invited hinized their motive, and shrank fro sensitiveness
But, though he showed huto murmur bitterly at his lot, he suffered no serious reverses He patiently, even in the face of positive disinclination, maintained his duties He remembered how often the Divine Man, in his shadowed life, went apart for prayer, and honestly tried to imitate this example, so specially suited to one as maimed and imperfect as himself
He found that his prayers were answered, that the strong Friend to whom he had allied his weakness did not fail hih the dark days, and his faith eventually brought hith, and with better health cah not a brilliant student, he was able to coraduate with credit He then took the first vacation that he had enjoyed for years, and, equipping hi-rod and a few favorite authors, he buried himself in the mountains of Maine