oice.
The difficulty increased with the hour; and, ah! my love for you crowned
it at last with impossibility."

"That should rather have removed the difficulty," answered he. "Explain,
sweet Helen. You are dealing in shadowy parables."

"Think you so, Adam?" said she, sighing. "Ah, then, is man's love
different from woman's? The one can look an obstacle in the face; the
other turns from it with terror, and flees. See you not that, by telling
my parents I could not love my cousin, I would have been conjuring up a
bad angel to cross, with his black wing, the secret but sweet path of
our affection. The very possibility of being separated from you--too
dear, Adam, as you are to this beating heart--made me tremble at the
articulation of that charmed word which contains all my happiness on
earth. You have stolen my heart from my father and mother, my sweet
woods and bowers, my bright moon and Kirtle; and think you what it would
be for me to lose him in whom all is centred!"

"Ah! Helen, Helen, this is unlike the majesty of that mind that roved
the blue fields of the heavens, and searched the hidden springs of the
love that reigns through all created things. That such thoughts should
be allied to that weakness which increases inevitable danger by flying
from it, I could not have supposed to be exemplified by my Maid of
Kirconnel. Yet is that trembling fear not a greater proof of my Helen's
love than an outspoken rejection of twenty rival suitors? It is--I feel
it is; and who will chide a fault of earth that hangs by a virtue of
heaven? Dear, devoted, cherished object of my first passion, what has
the simple heir of Kirkpatrick to give in exchange for the devotion of
such a being?"

And the impassioned youth pressed her closer and closer to his breast,
while he spread over her shoulders the falling cloak, to shield her from
the autumn dews.

They sat for some time silent--the difficulty of their situation being
for a brief period forgotten and lost in the tumult of the rising
feelings of a strong mutual passion.

"But this must not be allowed to continue," again said Kirkpatrick. "It
is _necessary_, Helen, that you do this duty to yourself, to your
cousin, your parents, and to me. Call up the necessary fortitude, my
love. Tell your mother that you cannot love Blacket House. I know the
pain it will produce to you and to them; but, alas! there are many
positions in this world where we can only get to the object of our
des