He could not be said to have expectations, but his position was not without certain contingencies, the extreme brilliancy of which might almost atone for their vagueness.

It was from a dream of future greatness, or what seemed to him as such, wherein he saw himself wealthy and powerful, surrounded with luxury and with the ministers of every pleasure, that he was suddenly and sharply awakened by a trifling incident--the snapping of a dead twig in the copse hard by.

In an instant the glittering gossamer of thought was swept aside, and the young fellow was all ear and eye.

The wind had dropped for some time, and the silence was intense; that solemn hush seemed to pervade the forest which some poet has attributed to the cessation of spiritual life, as though the haunters of the glade were _waiting_ for the resumption of their occupations until the interloping mortal should pass by.

Nothing stirred, or, if so, it was motion without sound, as when the full-feathered owl slid softly through the midnight air above him.