_ she had
worn on the previous occasion, and, throwing it over her shoulders, led
the way down the steps. While Jack Raby hurried off down the ravine,
she took her way towards the edge of the cliffs, where she saw a number
of people, some of them still firing in the direction where the boats
were supposed to be, though they must by that time have been beyond the
range of the guns; it served, however, to occupy their attention, so
that no one perceived her. She wandered among them for some time in
vain, looking for her brother, till, at last, she found him, leaning
against a part of the ruins on a high spot, from where he could overlook
the whole scene. Twice she called him, but so absorbed was he in his
own thoughts that he did not answer her, till she climbed up over the
broken fragments at his feet, and touched his arm.

"Paolo, my brother," she said, "I come to ask you to perform a generous
and a noble work, from which you must not shrink. You love the English
lady who has been held captive here. I knew it from the first, and I
know that she cannot return your love, for her heart is another's. Now
listen: the man to whom her heart is given, your rival if you will, lies
now in the island, wounded almost to death, and on your skill depends,
probably, whether he lives or dies. Promise me, then, as you hope for
salvation in another world, for peace of mind in this, to exert that
skill to the utmost to preserve his life, to conceal his real character
from my husband, and to aid him to escape from the island. Say you will
do this, my brother, and I believe, from what I have seen of that fair
girl, you are far more likely to win her regard by such conduct, and
ultimately, perhaps, even her love, than were her lover to die without
an attempt on your part to save him."

Paolo listened without interrupting her, and did not immediately answer.

"Her love! Do you think it possible that I should gain her love?" he at
length exclaimed, as if he had not heard anything else she had said. "I
would sacrifice life itself for that bright jewel."

"It would be wrong were I to hold hope out to you to induce you to act
as I could wish, Paolo," said Nina. "Think not of any other reward than
such as your own heart will afford you. Her love I do not believe that
you will attain, even were her lover to die. One of her nature places
her heart on one object, and when that is torn from her, it never again
finds a resting-place. A