without my counsel; in that time, you have run the hazard
of being murdered, and what is worse, of being excommunicated; for had
you been so rash as to have returned your opponent's fire, not all my
interest at Rome would have obtained remission of the punishment."

Miss Milner, through all her tears, could not now restrain her laughter.
On which he resumed;

"And here do I venture, like a missionary among savages--but if I can
only save you from their scalping knives--from the miseries which that
lady is preparing for you, I am rewarded."

Sandford spoke this with great fervour, and the offence of her love
never appeared to her in so tremendous a point of view, as when thus,
unknowingly, alluded to by him.

"_The miseries that lady is preparing for you_," hung upon her ears like
the notes of a raven, and sounded equally ominous. The words "_murder_"
and "_excommunication_" he had likewise uttered; all the fatal effects
of sacrilegious love. Frightful superstitions struck her to the heart,
and she could scarcely prevent falling down under their oppression.

Dorriforth beheld the difficulty she had in sustaining herself, and with
the utmost tenderness went towards her, and supporting her, said, "I beg
your pardon--I invited you hither with a far different intention than
your uneasiness, and be assured----"

Sandford was beginning to speak, when Dorriforth resumed,--"Hold, Mr.
Sandford, the lady is under my protection, and I know not whether it is
not requisite that you should apologize to her, and to me, for what you
have already said."

"You asked my opinion, or I had not given it you--would you have me, like
_her_, speak what I do not think?"

"Say no more, Sir," cried Dorriforth--and leading her kindly to the door,
as if to defend her from his malice, told her, "He would take another
opportunity of renewing the subject."

CHAPTER XVII.

When Dorriforth was alone with Sandford, he explained to him what before
he had only hinted; and this learned Jesuit frankly confessed, "That the
mind of woman was far above, or rather beneath, his comprehension." It
was so, indeed--for with all his penetration, and few even of that school
had more, he had not yet penetrated into the recesses of Miss Milner's
heart.

Miss Woodley, to whom she repeated all that had passed between herself,
her guardian, and Sandford, took this moment, in the agitation of her
spirits, to alarm her still more by prophetic insinuations