him. Her eyes, as before, were immediately withdrawn,
but there dwelt again upon her burning cheek such a consciousness of her
love as could not, for a moment, be mistaken. In fact she betrayed all
the confused symptoms of one who felt that the state of her heart had
been discovered. Osborne ceased playing; for such was his agitation that
he scarcely knew what he thought or did.

"I cannot go on," said he in a voice which equally betrayed the state
of his heart; "I cannot play;" and at the same time he seated himself
beside her.

Jane rose as he spoke, and in a broken voice, full of an expression like
distress, said hastily:

"It is time I should go;--I am,--I am too long out."

Osborne caught her hand, and in words that burned with the deep and
melting contagion of his passion, said simply:

"Do not go:--oh do not yet go!"

She looked full upon him, and perceived that as he spoke his face became
deadly pale, as if her words were to seal his happiness or misery.

"Oh do not leave me now," he pleaded; "do not go, and my life may yet be
happy."

"I must," she replied, with great difficulty; "I cannot stay; I do not
wish you to be unhappy;" and whilst saying this, the tears that ran in
silence down her cheeks proved too clearly how dear his happiness must
ever be to her.

Osborne's arm glided round her waist, and she resumed her seat,--or
rather tottered into it.

"You are in tears," he exclaimed. "Oh could it be true! Is it not, my
beloved girl? It is--it is--love! Oh surely, surely it must--it must!"

She sobbed aloud once or twice; and, as he kissed her unresisting lips,
she murmured out, "It is; it is; I love you."

Oh life! how dark and unfathomable are thy mysteries! And why is it that
thou permittest the course of true love, like this, so seldom to run
smooth, when so many who, uniting through the impulse of sordid passion,
sink into a state of obtuse indifference, over which the lights and
shadows that touch thee into thy finest perceptions of enjoyment pass in
vain.

It is a singular fact, but no less true than singular, that since the
world began there never was known any instance of an anxiety, on the
part of youthful lovers, to prolong to an immoderate extent the scene
in which the first mutual avowal of their passions takes place. The
excitement is too profound, and the waste of those delicate spirits,
which are expended in such interviews, is much too great to permit the
soul to bear such an