irs, her negative became fainter and less
resolutely expressed.

Owing to the necessity of making some repairs in his country residence,
the governor and his family had latterly resided altogether in St. Blas;
and as the puppy Don Gregorio watched with a suspicious and malignant
eye, the frequent visits of Morton, the lovers had generally met at the
house of Dame Juanita, the front of which was occupied as a shop, with a
little parlor back of it, to which Isabella had access by passing out of
the gate in the rear of her uncle's house, without going through the
street.

With all the glowing eloquence of young love, and hope, and confidence,
Morton detailed to her the thousand and one schemes that his fertile
imagination suggested; Isabella could see but one hideous feature in
them all--the dreadful fate that awaited him if unsuccessful.

"Listen to me," said he one day to her, as she had been urging to him
the terrible risk he encountered--for she seemed to have no eyes for the
certain immuring in a convent that awaited _her_--"listen to me, dearest
Isabella; the ship is now nearly ready; she will sail in three or four
days at farthest, and will sail at ten or eleven o'clock at night, to
take advantage of the land-breeze. I will have my boat at the quay, and
horses here in town; in the dusk of evening, and with a little disguise,
you will not be recognised; there is no guarda-costa here now, and
before the sun rises we shall be out of sight of land, and beyond the
reach of pursuit."

She made no reply, but sat pale as marble; the images of her kind and
affectionate aunt and cousins, and even of her much-feared but still
much-loved uncle, floated before her eyes, and seemed reproaching her
with unkindness and ingratitude; while, on the other hand, her fancy
painted her the wife of the man she loved, and without whom she felt
life would be wretched: she saw herself surrounded by enlightened and
polished society, such as her sainted mother had graced before her; she
saw herself moving in a new sphere, and fulfilling new duties: then
imagination placed before her bewildered mind the sinfulness of
deserting the station in which Heaven had placed her. She sighed deeply
as she almost determined to refuse, when a glimpse of her abhorred
lover, Don Gregorio, caused a sudden and violent revulsion of feeling,
and to Morton's repeated entreaties, "speak to me, dear Isabella; say
yes, love," she at length murmured a scarcely audi