So one breezy and cloudless afternoon Adam Forrester and Lilias Fay set out upon a ramble over the wide estate which they were to possess together , seeking a proper site for their temple of happiness . They were themselves a fair and happy spectacle , fit priest and priestess for such a shrine , although , making poetry of the pretty name of Lilias , Adam Forrester was wont to call her `` Lily '' because her form was as fragile and her cheek almost as pale . As they passed hand in hand down the avenue of drooping elms that led from the portal of Lilias Fay 's paternal mansion they seemed to glance like winged creatures through the strips of sunshine , and to scatter brightness where the deep shadows fell . But , setting forth at the same time with this youthful pair , there was a dismal figure wrapped in a black velvet cloak that might have been made of a coffin-pall , and with a sombre hat such as mourners wear drooping its broad brim over his heavy brows . Glancing behind them , the lovers well knew who it was that followed , but wished from their hearts that he had been elsewhere , as being a companion so strangely unsuited to their joyous errand . It was a near relative of Lilias Fay , an old man by the name of Walter Gascoigne , who had long labored under the burden of a melancholy spirit which was sometimes maddened into absolute insanity and always had a tinge of it . What a contrast between the young pilgrims of bliss and their unbidden associate ! They looked as if moulded of heaven 's sunshine and he of earth 's gloomiest shade ; they flitted along like Hope and Joy roaming hand in hand through life , while his darksome figure stalked behind , a type of all the woeful influences which life could fling upon them . But the three had not gone far when they reached a spot that pleased the gentle Lily , and she paused . `` What sweeter place shall we find than this ? '' said she . `` Why should we seek farther for the site of our temple ? '' It was indeed a delightful spot of earth , though undistinguished by any very prominent beauties , being merely a nook in the shelter of a hill , with the prospect of a distant lake in one direction and of a church-spire in another . There were vistas and pathways leading onward and onward into the green woodlands and vanishing away in the glimmering shade . The temple , if erected here , would look toward the west ; so that the lovers could shape all sorts of magnificent dreams out of the purple , violet and gold of the sunset sky , and few of their anticipated pleasures were dearer than this sport of fantasy . `` Yes , '' said Adam Forrester ; `` we might seek all day and find no lovelier spot . We will build our temple here . '' But their sad old companion , who had taken his stand on the very site which they proposed to cover with a marble floor , shook his head and frowned , and the young man and the Lily deemed it almost enough to blight the spot and desecrate it for their airy temple that his dismal figure had thrown its shadow there . He pointed to some scattered stones , the remnants of a former structure , and to flowers such as young girls delight to nurse in their gardens , but which had now relapsed into the wild simplicity of nature . `` Not here , '' cried old Walter Gascoigne .
`` Here , long ago , other mortals built their temple of happiness ; XXXXX another site for yours . ''
cried glimmering leading led maddened said seek seemed shape vanishing