ires through painful means. Pain is, indeed, the price of most of our
pleasures; and, when we do not pay that price, we become bankrupt in our
best feelings, and die wretched. When the path is free, I shall come
forward and claim my Helen in the face of the world. Will you, will you,
love?"

And he bent his head, and repeated the question in soft tones beneath
the cloak that covered her head; while she, in muffled accents,
replied--

"I will, I will, Adam, though I should die with the last word of the
declaration."

A heavy groan at this moment fell upon their ear. Adam started hastily
up; and Helen, roused from her love's dream, stood petrified with fear.
They looked around them in every direction; but the proximity of the
place where they had been sitting to the edge of the wood, rendered it
easy for an intruder to overhear their discourse, and to escape among
the trees in an instant. Helen's fears again fell on Blacket House, and
she whimpered to Adam what she had observed previous to her leaving the
house. He conceived them to be well founded; and, as the thought of the
man who could kill his enemies in disguise, and deny the deed, flashed
upon his mind, he felt for his sword, and then smiled at the precipitude
of his defensive precaution. It was necessary, however, that Helen
should now hurry home; and, surmounting the turf-dyke of the
burying-ground, they, with rapid steps, made for Kirconnel House, at a
little distance from which they parted, with a close embrace. Helen
stood for a moment, and looked after her lover; then, wrapping her cloak
about her head, she moved quickly round the edge of the enclosed lawn,
and was on the eve of running forward to the wicket, when Blacket House
stood before her. He looked for a moment sternly at her, spoke not a
word, and then dashed away into the wood. Terrified still more, Helen
hurried away, and got into the house and her own chamber before the full
extent of her danger opened, with all its probable consequences, upon
her mind. Having undressed herself, she retired to her couch, and
meditated on the extraordinary position in which she was now placed. She
had now been discovered by her cousin, who, no doubt, knew well that she
had that night had a secret meeting with Kirkpatrick--a partisan of his
antagonists, the Johnstones. The discovery of a rival had come on him
with the discovery of a delusion under which he had sighed, and dreamed,
and hoped for years. It was proba