s lips, without daring to look
her in the face; and after a moment's pause, she said--

"So, you wished to see me, Walter! It is an anxious night this for all
of us!"

"For all!" repeated Walter, emphatically; "and for me not the least!"

"We have known some sad days since we last met!" renewed Madeline; and
there was another, and an embarrassed pause.

"Madeline--dearest Madeline!" said Walter, at length dropping on his
knee; "you, whom while I was yet a boy, I so fondly, passionately
loved;--you, who yet are--who, while I live, ever will be, so
inexpressibly dear to me--say but one word to me on this uncertain and
dreadful epoch of our fate--say but one word to me--say you feel you
are conscious that throughout these terrible events I have not been
to blame--I have not willingly brought this affliction upon our
house--least of all upon that heart which my own would have forfeited
its best blood to preserve from the slightest evil;--or, if you will not
do me this justice, say at least that you forgive me!"

"I forgive you, Walter! I do you justice, my cousin!" replied Madeline,
with energy; and raising herself on her arm. "It is long since I have
felt how unreasonable it was to throw any blame upon you--the mere and
passive instrument of fate. If I have forborne to see you, it was not
from an angry feeling, but from a reluctant weakness. God bless and
preserve you, my dear cousin! I know that your own heart has bled as
profusely as ours; and it was but this day that I told my father, if we
never met again, to express to you some kind message as a last memorial
from me. Don't weep, Walter! It is a fearful thing to see men weep! It
is only once that I have seen him weep,--that was long, long ago! He has
no tears in the hour of dread and danger. But no matter, this is a bad
world, Walter, and I am tired of it. Are not you? Why do you look so
at me, Ellinor? I am not mad! Has she told you that I am, Walter? Don't
believe her! Look at me! I am calm and collected! Yet to-morrow is--O
God! O God!--if--if!--"

Madeline covered her face with her hands, and became suddenly silent,
though only for a short time; when she again lifted up her eyes, they
encountered those of Walter; as through those blinding and agonised
tears, which are only wrung from the grief of manhood, he gazed upon
that face on which nothing of herself, save the divine and unearthly
expression which had always characterised her loveliness, was left.

"