uxuriance of climbing vegetation, by
the living screen of noble firs and larches arranged in serried ranks
upon the slopes immediately behind it, with here and there a rugged
sentinel within the ruinous yards and rooms themselves; by wild bushes
of juniper and gorse and brambles. And, with the bright noon sun
pouring down upon the worn red sandstone, and gilding the delicate
tassels of the larches' green needles; with the light of young love,
spreading glamour upon every leaf and stone, in the eyes of the
lovers, the scene, witness of so many sweet meetings, bore that day a
beautiful and home-like aspect.

Captain Jack was standing upon the grass-grown floor of what had been
the departed monks' refectory, with ears eagerly bent to listen.

Three ragged walls, a clump of fir trees, and a bank of brambles
screened him from any chance passer-by, and he now and again peered
through a crevice on to a path through the woods, cautiously, as if
fearful to venture forth. His face was pale beneath its tan, and had
none of its usual brightness; his attire for him was disordered; his
whole appearance that of a man under the pressure of doubt and
anxiety. Yet, when the sound of a light footfall struck among the
thousand whispering noises of wind and leaf that went to make up the
silence of the ruins, the glory of joy that lit up eye and lip left no
room for any other impression.

Madeleine stood in the old doorway: a vision of beautiful life amid
emblems of decay and death.

"I come alone to-day," she said, with her half-shy smile. And then,
before she could utter a further word of explanation, she was gathered
into her lover's strong arms with a passion he had never as yet shown
in his chivalrous relations with her. But it was not because they met
without the sympathetic rapture of Miss Landale's eye upon them; not
because there was no other witnesses but the dangling ivy wreath, the
stern old walls, the fine dome of spring sky faintly blue; not because
of lover's audacious joy. This Madeleine, feeling the stormy throbbing
of his heart against hers, knew with sure instinct. She pushed him
gently from her as soon as she could, the blushes chased from her
cheeks by pale misgivings, and looked at him with eyes full of
troubled questioning.

Then he spoke, from his full heart:

"Madeleine, something has happened--a misfortune, as I wrote to you. I
must now start upon my venture sooner than I thought--at once. I shall
have to _f