house, but never to my room;
and once or twice she was absent a whole day, when my nervousness
returned. There was one correspondent whose missives were never read
to me--a fine, bold hand, which at length became familiar. Their
receipt pleased her, I thought, and once I ventured to say,

"'Heraine, you have a pleasant letter there.'

"She only blushed very much, and all her quietness was gone for a
moment.

"As the months expanded into years, a new feeling engendered from our
intimacy. I did not comprehend it at first. It crept upon me like the
unfolding of a new sense, or the gradual realizing of the earliest
profound thought. An unexpected event gave it recognition.

"The boldly-indorsed letters came twice a month at first, afterward
four times, and finally twice, thrice, and even five times a week.
Heraine was quick and flushed. She passed but two or three hours daily
in my apartment, and substituted for the embroidery a dress of such
bright hues that it dazzled my eyes. One day she took her accustomed
seat, with a face subdued to sadness and an irresolute manner.

"'Luke,' she said, after a long pause, 'we have passed many days
pleasantly together?'

"She did not wait for me to speak, though I thrilled and turned deadly
white.

"'And because so pleasantly, I contemplate my farewell with regret.'

"'Your farewell, Heraine?'

"'Yes,' she said firmly; 'to-day--this afternoon--this hour--I bid
adieu to Glengoyle!'

"I fell forward in my seat, forcing down my heart, which sobbed and
swelled, and the whole world rang, flared, and burst into violence. If
the seas had opened their fountains and the crust of the globe crushed
up, there would have been no greater chaos. But in my faintness and
agony I caught the blue eye which had soothed and melted me so often,
and, clasping my hands, I fell at her knees and said,

"'Heraine, I love you!'

"It was her time to tremble now, and I interpreted the pallor of her
cheek as a signal of hope.

"'I know that I love you,' I said; 'if the earth and the stars were to
be blotted out, and you remain, I should not miss them. You are my
universe. Without you there is no creation, and the elements are at
war. If you leave me, you have left only a bright space in a wretched
eternity. No voice but yours can say "peace" to me. Be merciful and
remain!'

"She was moved with my appeal, and tears came to her eyes.

"'I did not know that it had come to this,' she said. Then her