on girl?"

I halted and listened. The sale was coming to its close.

"Three thousand five hundred--going at three thousand five hundred--
going--going--"

The sharp stroke of the hammer fell upon my ear. It drowned the final
word "gone!" but my heart pronounced that word in the emphasis of its
agony.

There was a noisy scene of confusion, loud words and high excitement
among the crowd of disappointed bidders. Who was the fortunate one?

I leant over to ascertain. The tall dark man was in conversation with
the auctioneer. Aurore stood beside him. I now remembered having seen
the man on the boat. He was the agent of whom D'Hauteville had spoken.
The Creole had guessed aright, and so, too, had Le Ber.

_Gayarre had outbid them all_!

CHAPTER SIXTY TWO.

THE HACKNEY-CARRIAGE.

For a while I lingered in the hall, irresolute and almost without
purpose. She whom I loved, and who loved me in return, was wrested from
me by an infamous law, ruthlessly torn from me. She would be borne away
before my eyes, and I might, perhaps, never behold her again. Probable
enough was this thought--I might never behold her again! Lost to me,
more hopelessly lost, than if she had become the _bride_ of another.
Far more hopelessly lost. Then, at least, she would have been free to
think, to act, to go abroad, to --. Then I might have hoped to meet her
again, to see her, to gaze upon her, even if only at a distance, to
worship her in the secret silence of my heart, to console myself with
the belief that she still loved me. Yes; the bride, the wife of
another! Even that I could have borne with calmness. But now, not the
bride of another, but the _slave_, the forced, unwilling _leman_, and
that other--. Oh! how my heart writhed under its horrible imaginings!

What next? How was I to act? Resign myself to the situation? Make no
further effort to recover, to save her?

No! It had not come to that. Discouraging as the prospect was, a ray
of hope was visible; one ray yet illumed the dark future, sustaining and
bracing my mind for further action.

The plan was still undefined; but the purpose had been formed, and that
purpose was to free Aurore, to make her mine _at every hazard_! I
thought no longer of buying her. I knew that Gayarre had become her
owner. I felt satisfied that to purchase her was no longer possible.
He who had paid such an enormous sum would not be likely to part with
her at any price. My whole