them hoarsely. Lorenzo
gave himself up for lost. At that moment, above their heads,
on the edge of the rock, something moved--both looked up. A
blow, a tremendous blow, fell on Giacomo's head; his features
grew distorted, they quivered in agony--a yell of torture
escaped him: another blow, and his brains flew upon the face
and hands of his foe. A mist seemed to cover Lorenzo's eyes;
but he felt something stretched out to him--he clung to it
instinctively, he scrambled, he darted into the cavern, he
fainted, but he was safe."

"And who had saved him?" we all exclaimed.

"Amina, a girl whom he was courting, and by whom he was
beloved. She was carrying home to her father a large
sledge-hammer which he had lent to a neighbour. Passing alone
through that wild region, she saw the desperate situation of
the two men, recognised her lover struggling with the gendarme,
heard the shouts of the latter to his comrades, and rushed to
the spot."

"A brave girl," exclaimed Henry.

"How did the _romance_ end?" asked Mrs. Ernsley.

"Ah! there's the point," said Sir Edmund. "I asked Lorenzo if
he did not love the girl twice as much since her gallant
conduct. 'I was very grateful to her,' he answered, 'but I was
no longer in love with her.' I exclaimed in astonishment, but
he persisted; it was very odd certainly, she had saved his
life, and he would have done anything to serve her; 'But you
know, gentlemen,' he added, 'one cannot help being in love, or
not being in love; and when I looked at Amina's black eyes, I
could not help shuddering, for I remembered the look they had,
when she gave Giacomo that last blow, and it was not pleasant,
and in short I could not be in love with her, and there was an
end of it.'"

"And is it possible," exclaimed Mrs. Ernsley, "that he was so
ungrateful as to forsake her?"

"No; he told me he would have married her, if she had wished
it, but she did not; 'Perhaps,' he said, 'she saw I was no
longer in love with her; but she did not seem to care much,
and there was an end of it,' as he said before. Now I own I
cannot understand the fellow's feeling; if anybody had saved
my life, as Amina saved his, I really believe I should have
fallen in love with her, had she been old and ugly; but a
handsome girl, whom he was in love with before, that she
should lose his heart, in consequence of the very act for
which he should have adored her, passes, I confess, my
comprehension. But Edward Middleton disagree