n, to welcome you
with joy, and call you sister."

Raoul was earnest in his manner, and it was not possible to doubt his
sincerity. Though an air of self-satisfaction gleamed in his face, when
he alluded to his present personal appearance, for he well knew all his
advantages in that way, in spite of the dress of a lazzarone.

"Urge me not, dear Raoul," Ghita answered, though, unconsciously to
herself, she pressed closer to his side, and both sadness and love were
in the very tones of her voice; "urge me not, dear Raoul; this can never
be. I have already told you the gulf that lies between us; you _will_
not cross it, to join _me_, and I _cannot_ cross it, to join _you_.
Nothing but _that_ could separate us; but that, to my eyes, grows
broader and deeper every hour."

"Ah, Ghita, thou deceivest me, and thyself. Were thy feelings as thou
fanciest, no human inducement could lead thee to reject me."

"It is not a human inducement, Raoul; it is one above earth, and all it
holds."

"_Peste_! These priests are scourges sent to torment men in every shape!
They inflict hard lessons in childhood, teach asperity in youth, and
make us superstitious and silly in age. I do not wonder that my brave
compatriots drove them from France; they did nothing but devour like
locusts, and deface the beauties of providence."

"Raoul, thou art speaking of the ministers of God!" Ghita observed
meekly, but in sorrow.

"Pardon me, dearest Ghita; I have no patience when I remember what a
trifle, after all, threatens to tear us asunder. Thou pretendest to
love me?"

"It is not pretence, Raoul, but a deep and, I fear, a painful reality."

"To think that a girl so frank, with a heart so tender, and a soul so
true, will allow any secondary thing to divide her from the man of
her choice!"

"It is not a secondary, but a primary thing, Raoul; oh! that I could
make thee think so. The question is between thee and God--were it aught
else, thou might'st indeed prevail."

"Why trouble thyself about my religion at all? Are there not thousands
of wives who tell their beads, and repeat their aves, while their
husbands think of anything but heaven? Thou and I can overlook this
difference; others overlook them, and keep but one heart between them
still. I never would molest thee, Ghita, in thy gentle worship."

"It is not thou that I dread, Raoul, but myself," answered the girl,
with streaming eyes, though she succeeded in suppressing the sobs that
st