of the street. I remained at the
window like a man in a dream. My Courland friends came in to fetch me
for an excursion which had been arranged: I never spoke; they thought I
was ill. How could I have uttered a single word connected with what had
occurred? I abstained from making any inquiries in the hotel about the
occupants of the room next to mine; I felt that every word relating to
her uttered by any lips but mine would be a desecration of my tender
secret. I resolved to keep it always faithfully from thenceforth, to
bear it about with me always, and to be for ever true to her--my only
love for evermore--although I might never see her again. You can quite
understand my feelings. I know you will not blame me for having
immediately given up everybody and everything but the most eager search
for the very slightest trace of my unknown love. My jovial Courland
friends were now perfectly unendurable to me; I slipped away from them
quietly in the night, and was off as fast as I could travel to B----,
to go on with my work there. You know I was always pretty good at
drawing. Well, in B---- I took lessons in miniature painting from good
masters, and got on so well that in a short time I was able to carry
out the idea which had set me on this tack--to paint a portrait of her,
as like as it could be made. I worked at it secretly, with locked
doors. No human eye has ever seen it; for I had another picture the
exact size of it framed, and put her portrait into the frame instead of
it, myself. Ever since, I have worn it next my heart.

"'"I have never mentioned this affair--much the most important event in
my life--until to-day; and you are the only creature in the world,
Lewis, to whom I have breathed a word of my secret. Yet this very day a
hostile influence--I know not whence or what--comes piercing into my
heart and life! When I went up to the Turk, I asked--thinking of my
beloved--

"'"'Will there ever be a time again for me like that which was the
happiest in my life?'

"'"The Turk was most unwilling to answer me, as I daresay you observed;
but at last, as I persisted, he said--

"'"'I am looking into your breast; but the glitter of the gold, which
is towards me, distracts me. Turn the picture round.'

"'"Have I words for the feeling which went shuddering through me? I am
sure you must have seen how I was startled. The picture was really
placed on my breast in the way the Turk had said; I turned it round,
unobserved,