nce from him.

"Then do not look so cold, and glance your eye repulsively on me,"
exclaimed Zappa; "one might suppose that I were a monster unfit for one
so fair and pure as you to gaze on."

Nina burst into tears.

"You are unkind and I am weak," she exclaimed passionately. "You
confess to me that you are a pirate and a robber, that your hand is
stained with the blood of your fellow-men--of men not slain because they
are the enemies of your country, but because they attempted to guard the
treasure committed to their charge, and I ought to loathe and detest
you, and yet I cannot--I love, I love you still."

And she sank down on her knees at his feet, and hiding her face in the
cushions of the divan, gave way to a flood of tears, while her bosom
heaved as if she were struggling for existence.

Zappa gazed at her for some minutes without speaking, till the paroxysm
of the fit had passed away, when compunction, or it might have been a
less amiable feeling, seized him, and stooping down, he raised her in
his arms.

"I was but trying you, lovely one," he said, in a soft tone. "I am not
the blood-stained monster I painted myself. My hand has never slain a
fellow-man except in self-defence; and is not so unworthy as you would
believe to be clasped in yours. Besides, Nina, you are, as far as your
church makes you so, my wedded wife--for good or for evil, for wealth or
for poverty, and must not, sweet one, play the tyrant over me. But a
truce with this folly--I am weary of it," he cried, starting up; "I have
many directions to give about my brave barque, which I must not forget--
even for your sake,--and I must see old Vlacco, and consult with him
about improving the fortifications of our island--for, with enemies on
all sides, these are not times when we can trust to our remote position
as before, and to such old defences as nature has provided. Farewell;
and when I return, let me see the accustomed smile resting on those
sweet lips."

He kissed her as he spoke; and, without waiting for an answer, he
quitted the chamber, and she heard him descending the steps of the
tower. She hid her face in her hands, and there seemed but little
prospect of her having the power to obey his commands.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

We left Ada Garden virtually a prisoner on board a vessel which she
believed a Greek man-of-war. Day after day the voyage continued without
the anchor being dropped. Sometimes the vessel was steered in one