s on his lips. "Hush! I shall have
everything that life can give me in having your love."

"My darling, Heaven bless you!" cried Falkenstein, passionately; "but
think twice, Valerie--pause before you decide. I am a ruined
man--embarrassments fetter me on every side. To-morrow, for aught I
know, I may be arrested for debt. I would not lead you into what, in
older years, you may regret."

"Regret!" cried Valerie, clinging to him. "How can I ever regret that I
have won the one heaven I crave. If you love me, life will always be
beautiful in my eyes; and, Count Waldemar, I can work for you--I can
help you, be it ever so little. I cannot make much money now, but you
have said that I shall gain more year after year. Only let me be with
you; let me know your sorrows and lighten them if I can, and I could ask
no greater happiness----"

Falkenstein bent over her, and covered with caresses the lips that to
him seemed so eloquent; he had no words to thank her for a love that, to
his warm and solitary heart, came like water in the wilderness. The
sound of voices gay and laughing, on the stairs, startled him.

"That is Bevan and Godolphin; I forgot they were coming for me to go
down to the Castle. Good Heavens! they mustn't see you here, love, to
jest about you over their mess-tables. Stay," said Falkenstein, hastily,
as the men entered the front room, "wait here a moment; they cannot see
you in this window, and I will come to you again. Hallo! old fellows!"
said he, passing through the folding-doors. "You're wonderfully
punctual, Tom. I always give you half an hour's grace; but I suppose
Harry's such an awful martinet, that he kept you up to time for once."

"All the credit's due to my mare," laughed Godolphin. "She did the
distance from Knightsbridge in four minutes, and I don't think Musjid
himself could beat that. Are you ready, I say? because we're to be at
the Castle by six, and Fitz don't like waiting for his turbot."

"Give me a brace of seconds, and I shall be with you," said Waldemar.

"Make haste, there's a good fellow. By George!" said Harry, catching
sight of the jewel-case, "for a fellow who's so deucedly hard up, you've
been pretty extravagant in getting those diamonds, Waldemar. Who are
they for--Rosalie Rivers, or the Deloraine; or that last love of yours,
that wonderful little L'Estrange?"

Falkenstein's brow grew dark; he snatched the case from the table, with
a suppressed oath, and went back to the inner