Again I was silenced. There was something decidedly mysterious in the tone of this man's conversation. What did he mean by his talk of other worlds, and of visiting foreign countries without leaving his own? I should have set him down as perhaps a little wrong in the head, had not the stern self-possession and utter absence of extravagance in his manner discountenanced such a supposition. On the other hand, he was manifestly a man of some education and even refinement. His dress was rude enough, but his speech was accurate, and his face, despite its ruggedness, was sensitive to the play of thought within. It occurred to me that he might be a spiritualist, and that the strange lands to which he alluded might be the visions of mesmeric trance. Yet no; there was in him no trace of the morbid and unwholesome restlessness of the confirmed disciples of that unlucky science. What, then, was he? I looked round at him as I asked this question of myself, and met those far-seeing eyes of his directed upon me with something like a grave smile lurking at their bottom. This smile quite changed the impression of his visage, illumining it with a genial light that was singularly winning. It brought a sudden memory to my mind. 'You take me for a lunatic, young man,' said he; 'well, in a certain way, perhaps I am one. You must ask your uncle.' 'I dare say he could tell me as much about you as anyone,' I replied, returning his smile; 'for I believe you are my uncle, yourself!' 'What makes you think that?' 'You smile as my mother used to do.' At the mention of my mother his face saddened again, and he sighed; but after a moment, 'Well, my boy, you have found me out,' he said, patting me kindly on the shoulder. 'I wished to meet you as a man before I greeted you as a nephew. You seem to be an honest fellow, though you have but a flimsy body to carry your honesty about with. I am glad to see you here.' There was so much quiet heartiness in this welcome, that I felt at home with my relative at once. He now talked with me more freely, asking many particulars about my mother and myself, and indulging in no more of those enigmatical utterances which had made him seem so questionable at first. In this manner we slowly wound our way to the top of the long acclivity, and after driving a level mile or so, I saw the summit of a lofty stone tower peering above the trees. 'That is my travelling-carriage,' said Uncle Philip, pointing to the tower with his whip. 'The house stands beside it; we shall see it when we have turned that corner.'