d her eyes from
the deer, and, beholding me, started to her feet, uttering a cry of
terror and surprise. Fearing to speak, as if the sound of my own voice
were sufficient to dispel the illusion that fascinated both eye and
heart into delicious tension on her form, yet with my soul kindled into
all that wild uncontrollable love which had been the accumulation of
years of passionate imagining, I stood for some moments as motionless
as the rock out of which I appeared to grow. It seemed as though I had
not the power to think or act, so fully was every faculty of my being
filled with the consciousness that I at length gazed upon her I was
destined to love for ever.

"It was this utter immobility on my own part, that ensured me a
continuance of the exquisite happiness I then enjoyed. The first
movement of the startled girl had been to fly towards her dwelling,
which stood at a short distance, half imbedded in the same clustering
roses and honey-suckles that adorned her bank of moss; but when she
remarked my utter stillness, and apparent absence of purpose, she
checked the impulse that would have directed her departure, and
stopped, half in curiosity, half in fear, to examine me once more. At
that moment all my energies appeared to be restored; I threw myself
into an attitude expressive of deep contrition for the intrusion of
which I had been unconsciously guilty, and dropping on one knee, and
raising my clasped hands, inclined them towards her in token of mingled
deprecation of her anger, and respectful homage to herself. At first
she hesitated,--then gradually and timidly retrod her way to the seat
she had so abruptly quitted in her alarm. Emboldened by this movement,
I made a step or two in advance, but no sooner had I done so than she
again took to flight. Once more, however, she turned to behold me, and
again I had dropped on my knee, and was conjuring her, with the same
signs, to remain and bless me with her presence. Again she returned to
her seat, and again I advanced. Scarcely less timid, however, than the
deer, which followed her every movement, she fled a third time,--a
third time looked back, and was again induced, by my supplicating
manner, to return. Frequently was this repeated, before I finally found
myself at the feet, and pressing the hand--(oh God! what torture in the
recollection!)--yes, pressing the hand of her for whose smile I would,
even at that moment, have sacrificed my soul; and every time she fled,