; your
sweet voice has broken the spell; and if you experience pleasure from a
recital of my thoughts, I shall indeed be the happiest mortal on earth.
When I say I love you, Eleanor, I convey but a shadow of what I
inwardly feel; it has long been my one consuming fire; you, and you
alone, are the object of my warmest and tenderest affections. Your kind
and sweet excellence first won my regard, and I early learnt to cherish
your image as my soul's talisman and idol; but ere I had an opportunity
of breathing in your ear the nature of the fire that consumed me, my
hopes were blighted. I learnt from your cousin the existence of an
engagement that has stamped my spirit with despair; and though I have
striven to forget you, save as a dear friend, and have almost driven
myself frantic in the struggle, yet it is without success. At a time,
when I had almost banished from my memory the existence of my passion,
some passing object would reflect your image in the mirror of my mind,
and would render me almost demented with the thought that your charms
were destined to bless some other one. Oh, say my angel! can that be? Is
it possible your troth is plighted to another? Pray, speak; my destiny
hangs upon your answer. Say but that you bid me hope; that you will not
reject me; anything rather than discard or banish me from your presence,
without the chance of catching one ray of the sunshine of your smile."

John then paused, and gently removing the hand that attempted to conceal
her face, in a more subdued tone he continued, "You weep; I have been
wild, I have agitated you. Oh, hear me, Eleanor! be but mine, and I need
not tell you I will cherish you above all earthly prizes. I already love
you to distraction; I would thenceforth live but for thee. You are
silent; you do not reciprocate my feeling. Oh, this torture! Utter my
doom, for I can bear it. I see it is as I feared; you are engaged to
another. Oh! speak, Eleanor, is it not so?"

"It is, sir," uttered a voice that made both parties start, and that put
an end to John's declaration. "She is engaged to me, and if she will
not say it herself, I will for her; and at the same time I have to
intimate to you, that since I have discovered your pretensions, I do not
intend to permit them to go unpunished, unless you instantly quit the
lady's side;" and the speaker, Bob Smithers, flourished his whip in a
menacing attitude, as he stalked up to the couple, who had now risen.

"As to you