-saw their faces--and--and--(bursting into a loud, wild laugh)
they were both strangers!"

"Ah, I thought so, I knew so," said Lester plucking the instrument from
the bureau. "I knew they could be no Grassdale men. What, did you fancy,
they could be? But--bless me, Madeline--what ho! help!--Aram, she has
fainted at your feet."

And it was indeed true and remarkable, that so utter had been the
absorption of Aram's mind, that he had been insensible not only to
the entrance of Madeline, but even that she had thrown herself on his
breast. And she, overcome by her feelings, had slid to the ground from
that momentary resting-place, in a swoon which Lester, in the general
tumult and confusion, was now the first to perceive.

At this exclamation, at the sound of Madeline's name, the blood rushed
back from Aram's heart, where it had gathered, icy and curdling; and,
awakened thoroughly and at once to himself, he knelt down, and weaving
his arms around her, supported her head on his breast, and called upon
her with the most passionate and moving exclamations.

But when the faint bloom retinged her cheek, and her lips stirred, he
printed a long kiss on that cheek--on those lips, and surrendered his
post to Ellinor; who, blushingly gathering the robe over the beautiful
breast from which it had been slightly drawn; now entreated all, save
the women of the house, to withdraw till her sister was restored.

Lester, eager to hear what his guest could relate, therefore took Aram
to his own apartment, where the particulars were briefly told.

Suspecting, which indeed was the chief reason that excused him to
himself in yielding to Madeline's request, that the men Lester and
himself had encountered in their evening walk, might be other than they
seemed, and that they might have well overheard Lester's communication,
as to the sum in his house, and the place where it was stored; he had
not undressed himself, but kept the door of his room open to listen
if any thing stirred. The keen sense of hearing, which we have before
remarked him to possess, enabled him to catch the sound of the file at
the bars, even before Ellinor, notwithstanding the distance of his own
chamber from the place, and seizing the sword which had been left in his
room, (the pistol was his own) he had descended to the room below.

"What!" said Lester, "and without a light?"

"The darkness is familiar to me," said Aram. "I could walk by the edge
of a precipice in the