pted by any suspicion that our
egoism prompts.

"Here?" And she hung close to him, open-lipped, open-eyed, open-eared, as
if (Georgiana would think it, thought Merthyr) her savage senses had laid
the trap for this proposal, and now sprung up keen for their prey. "Here,
Merthyr? Yes! let me see him. You will! Let me see him, for he cannot
resist me. He tries. He thinks he does: but he cannot. I can stretch out
my finger--I can put it on the day when, if he has galloped one way he
will gallop another. Let him come."

She held up both her hands in petition, half dropping her eyelids, with a
shadowy beauty.

In Merthyr's present view, the idea of Wilfrid being in ranks opposed to
him was so little provocative of intense dissatisfaction, that it was out
of his power to believe that Emilia craved to see him simply to dissuade
the man from the obnoxious step. "Ah, well! See him; see him, if you
must," he said. "Arrange it with my sister."

He quitted the room, shrinking from the sound of her thanks, and still
more from the consciousness of his torment.

The business that detained him was to get money for Marini. Georgiana
placed her fortune at his disposal a second time. There was his own,
which he deemed it no excess of chivalry to fling into the gulf. The two
sat together, arranging what property should be sold, and how they would
share the sacrifice in common. Georgiana pressed him to dispose of a
little estate belonging to her, that money might immediately be raised.
They talked as they sat over the fire toward the dusk of the winter
evening.

"You would not have refused me once, Merthyr!"

"When you were a child, and I hardly better than a boy. Now it's
different. Let mine go first, Georgey. You may have a husband, who will
not look on these things as we do."

"How can I love a husband!" was all she said; and Merthyr took her in his
arms. His gaiety had gone.

"We can't go dancing into a pit of this sort," he sighed, partly to
baffle the scrutiny he apprehended in her silence. "The garrison at Milan
is doubled, and I hear they are marching troops through Tyrol. Some
alerte has been given, and probably some traitors exist. One wouldn't
like to be shot like a dog! You haven't forgotten poor Tarani? I heard
yesterday of the girl who calls herself his widow."

"They were betrothed, and she is!" exclaimed Georgiana.

"Well, there's a case of a man who had two loves--a woman and his
country; and both true to him!"