ble to you, it will perhaps be for your happiness
to forget--yet--pardon me if I am selfish--I would have some little
light amidst the darkness gathering around my heart--may I hope that had
no duty forbidden you would have been mine?"

She yielded to his clasping arm, and sinking on his bosom, murmured
there, "Yours--yours ever and only--yours wholly if I could be yours
holily."

From this interview Mary retired to her chamber, and Captain Percy
sought his host in his study. After communicating to Mr. Sinclair the
contents of the dispatch he had just received, he continued, "I must in
consequence of these orders leave you immediately--but before I go I
have a confession to make to you. You will not wonder that your lovely
daughter should have won my heart; but one hour since, I could have said
that I had never yielded for an instant to that heart's suggestions--had
never consciously revealed my love, or endeavored to excite in her
feelings which, in my position and the present relations of our
respective countries, could scarcely fail to be productive of pain. I
can say so no longer. The moment of parting has torn the veil from the
hearts of both--she loves me,"--there was a joyous intonation in Captain
Percy's voice as he pronounced these last words. He was silent a moment
while Mr. Sinclair continued to look gravely down--then suddenly he
resumed--"Pardon my selfishness--I forget all else in the sweet thought
that I am loved by one so pure, so gentle, so lovely. But though I have
dared without your permission to acknowledge my own tenderness, and to
draw from her the dear confession of her regard, there my wrong has
ended--she has assured me that she could never be happy separated from
you, and that you are wedded to your people." Mr. Sinclair shaded with
his hand features quivering with emotion. "At present," continued
Captain Percy, "these feelings, which are both of them too sacred for me
to contest, place a barrier between us, and I have sought from her no
promise for the future--if she can forget me--" Captain Percy paused a
moment, then added abruptly--"may a happier destiny be hers than I could
have commanded--but, sir, the time may come when England shall no longer
need all her soldiers--an orphan and an only child, I have nothing to
bind me to her soil--should I seek you then, and find your Mary with an
unchanged heart, will you give her to me?--will you receive me as a
son?"

"Under such circumstances I