fascinated to her own destruction. There the eye
was fastened upon her, and she felt herself deprived of the power of
removing her own from his.

"O my God!" she exclaimed, "I am lost--help, help; the murderous eye is
upon me!"

"It is enough," said Woodward; "good by, Miss Goodwin. I was simply
contemplating your beauty, and I am sorry to see that you are in so weak
a state. Present my compliments to your father and mother; and I think
of me as a man whose affection you have indignantly spurned--a man,
however, I whose eye, whatever his heart may be, is not to be trifled
with."

He then made her a low bow, and took his departure back through the
garden.

"It is over," said he; "_finitum est_, the property is mine; she cannot
be saved now; I have taken her life; but no one can say that I have shed
her blood. My precious mother will be delighted to hear this. Now, we
will be free to act with old Cockletown and his niece; and if she does
not turn out a good wife--if she crosses me in my amours---for amours I
will have,--I shall let her, too, feel what my eye can do."

Alice's screams, after his departure from the garden, brought out Sarah
Sullivan, who, aided by another servant, assisted her between them to
reach the house, where she was put to bed in such a state of weakness,
alarm, and terror as cannot be described. Her father and mother were
immediately sent for, and, on arriving at her bedside, found her
apparently in a dying state. All she could find voice to utter was,--

"He was here--his eye was upon me in the summer house. I feel I am
dying."

Doctor Doolittle and Father Mulrenin were both sent for, but she had
fallen into an exhausted slumber, and it was deemed better not to
disturb her until she might gain some strength by sleep. Her parents,
who felt so anxious about her health, and the faint hopes of her
recovery, now made fainter by the incident which had just occurred, did
not return to the assembly, and the consequence was that Woodward and
they did not meet.

When the hour for the dance, however, arrived, the tables for
refreshments were placed in other and smaller rooms, and the larger one
in which they had dined was cleared out for the ball. The simple-hearted
Pythagorean had slept himself sober, without being aware of the cause of
his break-down at the dinner, and he now appeared among them in a gala
dress of snow-white linen. He was no enemy to healthy amusements, for
he could not forget t