acy should betray her.

But Hero, who had listened, and observed with his usual acuteness,
interrupted the farce at that moment by springing to the boat, and
placing his fore paws in it, he gently seized the blanket in his mouth,
and pulled it from her unresisting shoulders. A bark of pleasure
succeeded this exploit, as he laid his shaggy head in her lap, to
receive the expected caress.

"Now, by my faith, mademoiselle," said De Valette, coloring with mingled
feelings, "I can indeed, no longer discredit your pretensions to the art
of disguise."

"Indeed, you have no reason to do so," she said, smiling; "though I
scarcely thought, Eustace, that you had less penetration than your dog!
But do you remember what I once told you;--twice deceived, beware of the
third time!"

"I would not have believed _then_, Lucie, that you were so skilled in
deceit!" he said, in a tone of bitterness; but quickly added,
carelessly, "I willingly confess that I have not penetration enough to
detect the disguises of a woman's heart!"

"It would certainly be difficult to detect that which has no existence,"
said Lucie, gaily; "we are but too guileless, too single-hearted, in
truth, for our own happiness."

"And for the happiness of others, you may add," rejoined De Valette;
"the boasted simplicity of your sex is so closely allied to art, that,
by my troth, the most practised could scarce detect the difference!"

"I begin to have faith in miracles," said Lucie, with arch gravity;
"surely nothing less than one could transform the gallant De Valette,
the very pink of chivalrous courtesy, into a reviler of that sex,
who"--

"Who are not quite so faultless as my credulity once led me to believe
them," interrupted De Valette.

"Nay, if you have lost your faith in our infallibility," she answered,
"your case is hopeless, and I would counsel you to put on the cowl, at
once, and hie away to some dull monastery, where you can rail, at
leisure, against woman and her deceptive attributes. It might form a new
and fitting exercise for the holy brotherhood, and, methinks, would
sound less harshly from their lips, than from those of a young and
generous cavalier."

"I am not yet so weary of the world as to avail myself of your advice,"
he replied; "however grateful I may, feel for the kindness which prompts
you to give it."

"I hope you do feel more gratitude than your looks express," said Lucie;
"for, though I have labored most abundantly to plea