He
then freed himself from Herkimer's grasp, by a subtle motion, and
gliding through the gate, took refuge in his antiquated family
residence. The sculptor did not pursue him. He saw that no available
intercourse could be expected at such a moment, and was desirous,
before another meeting, to inquire closely into the nature of
Roderick's disease, and the circumstances that had reduced him to so
lamentable a condition. He succeeded in obtaining the necessary
information from an eminent medical gentleman.
Shortly after Elliston's separation from his wife- now nearly
four years ago- his associates had observed a singular gloom spreading
over his daily life, like those chill, gray mists that sometimes steal
away the sunshine from a summer's morning. The symptoms caused them
endless perplexity. They knew not whether ill health were robbing
his spirits of elasticity; or whether a canker of the mind was
gradually eating, as such cankers do, from his moral system into the
physical frame, which is but the shadow of the former.
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