he approached
him, and pressed it to his lips.

"Dearest Edith, where have you been so long?"

"With my uncle, Michael. I have my uncle's 'ultimatum,' as he calls it."

"What is it, Edith?"

"Ah! how shall I tell you without offense? But, dearest Michael you will
not mind--you will forgive an old man's childish prejudices, especially
when you know they are not personal--but circumstantial, national,
bigoted."

"Well, Edith! well?"

"Michael, he says--he says that I may give you my hand--"

"Said he so! Bless that fair hand, and bless him who bestows it!" he
exclaimed, clasping her fingers and pressing them to his lips.

"Yes, Michael, but--"

"But what! there is no but; he permits you to give me your hand; there
is then no but--'a jailer to bring forth some monstrous malefactor.'"

"Yet listen! You know I was to have been his heiress!"

"No, indeed I did not know it! never heard it! never suspected it! never
even thought of it! How did I know but that he had sons and daughters,
or nephews away at school!"

"Well, I was to have been his heiress. Now he disinherits me, unless I
consent to be married to his friend and favorite, Dr. Grimshaw."

"You put the case gently and delicately, dear Edith, but the hard truth
is this--is it not--that he will disinherit you, if you consent to be
mine? You need not answer me, dearest Edith, if you do not wish to; but
listen--I have nothing but my sword, and beyond my boundless love
nothing to offer you but the wayward fate of a soldier's wife. Your eyes
are full of tears. Speak, Edith Lance! Can you share the soldier's
wandering life? Speak, Edith, or lay your hand in mine. Yet, no! no! no!
I am selfish and unjust. Take time, love, to think of all you abandon,
all that you may encounter in joining your fate to mine. God knows what
it has cost me to say it--but--take time, Edith," and he pressed and
dropped her hand.

"I do not need to do so. My answer to-day, to-morrow, and forever, must
be the same," she answered, in a very low voice; and her eyes sought the
ground, and the blush deepened on her cheek, as she laid her hand in
his. How he pressed that white hand, to his lips, to his heart! How he
clasped her to his breast! How he vowed to love and cherish her as the
dearest treasure of his life need not here be told.

Edith said:

"Now take me in to uncle, and tell him, for he asked me not to keep him
in suspense."

Michael led her into the hall, where the commodor