iar to her own secret mind, assumed a new and
strange terror for her imagination the moment it ceased to be hers
_alone_. The shock was novel and overpowering, when the separation
seemed acquiesced in by him, thus putting it out of her own power to
hesitate further between devotion to the lover or to the parent. His
reconciled manner, his calm taking her by the hand, even the kiss which
she could not resist, were more painful than his utmost resentment would
have been. Yet there was a sad severity in his look, as his fine
countenance of deep melancholy turned to the bright moon, which a little
comforted her, and indicated that it was pride rather than patience
which led to his affected contentment. _He_ had not a parent to nerve
_his_ heart to the sacrifice.

"I passed _your_ home yesterday," he began sarcastically: "it is a fine
place again, already, that hall of Talylynn, and wants only as fine a
mistress."

"You wrong me, David _bach_! on my life and soul you do, _dear_ David!"
she replied sobbing. "'Tis a hateful hall--a horrid hall! If it were
only I, your poor lost Winifred, that was to suffer, oh! how much sooner
would I be carried dead into a vault, than alive, and dressed in all the
finest silks of India, into that dreadful house you twit me
with!--unkind, unkind!" And almost fainting, her head sunk upon his
shoulder, and his arm was required to support her.

Instantly she recovered, and stood erect. "But oh, David, there is
another dreadful place, and another dear being besides you, dearest,
that I think of night and day! The horrid castle jail--my dear, dear
father! Oh, if this Lewis speaks truth, and if that strange boy--I only
knew him as a boy, you know--who has power to ruin him, (_will_ surely
ruin him!) will _indeed_ forgive him all he owes; will really become his
son--his son-in-law, instead of his merciless creditor; oh! could I
refuse _my_ part, shocking part though it be? I should not suffer long,
David--I feel I should not."

"And pray, what _kind_ of youth--_boy_ as you are pleased to call
him--was this nabob then?" enquired her lover, apparently startled at
learning the fact of her having had some previous knowledge of his
powerful rival.

"A youth! a mere child, when I last saw him," she answered. "I thought
you had known all about him."

"Nothing more than his name; how came you in his company?"

"His father, living in India, was half-brother to our old squire,
Fitzarthur of Talylynn.