ROMANCE. 279 



and had chosen ' the liberal professions/ But no man 

 has so strong an attraction for a superior girl as a man 

 of brains, and Miller's seniority of ten years was in his 

 favour rather than the reverse in the contest with more 

 juvenile rivals. Miss Eraser, meeting him here and there 

 in society, was interested by his conversation. On sunny 

 forenoons, she might pause in her walk to have a chat 

 with him in the churchyard. On which side the friend- 

 ship first glowed into a warmer feeling need not be 

 determined ; probably they became lovers almost simul- 

 taneously ; and it is certain that this his first and last 

 love took entire possession of Miller's heart. 



A number of materials, letters of the period, me- 

 moranda, note-books, illustrative of this part of his 

 history, have come into my hands, and from these I have 

 selected at my own discretion and on my own responsi- 

 bility. Here is a glimpse of him from an authentic 

 source, when he seems to have been already pretty far 

 gone. ' One evening we (Miss Eraser and Hugh Miller) 

 encountered each other by chance in a wooded path of 

 the hill, above which slope a few cultivated fields skirted 

 by forest. Hugh Miller prevailed on me to accompany 

 him to a point which commands a fine view of the Frith 

 and surrounding country. We sat down to rest at the 

 edge of a pine wood in a little glade fragrant with fallen 

 cones and ankle-deep in the spiky leaves of the firs. I 

 sat on the stump of a felled tree. He threw himself on 

 the ground two or three yards from my feet. The sun 

 was just setting, and lighted up the pillared trunks 

 around with a deep copper-coloured glow. Hugh took 

 out a volume of Goldsmith, When did he ever want a 

 companion of that description ? He read in a low voice 

 the story of Edwin and Angelina. It was then I first sus- 

 pected that he had a secret which he had not revealed/ 



