of, as she walked up the avenue to the old
mansion, after they had parted at the draw-bridge, on the morning of the
day when she was so mysteriously removed. "Melissa!"---- "Alonzo!"----
were all they could articulate: and frown not, my fair readers, if we
tell you that she was instantly in his arms, while he pressed his ardent
lips to her glowing cheek.

Sneer not, ye callous hearted insensibles, ye fastidious prudes, if we
inform you that their tears fell in one intermingling shower, that their
sighs wafted in one blended breeze.

The sudden opening of the door aroused them to a sense of their improper
situation; for who but must consider it _improper_ to find a young lady
locked in the arms of a gentleman to whom she had just been introduced?
The opening of the door, therefore, caused them quickly to change their
_position_; not so hastily, however, but that the young officer who then
entered the room had a glimpse of their situation.----"Aha! said he,
have I caught you? Is my philosophic Plato so soon metamorphosed to a
_bon ton_ enamarato? But a few hours ago, sir, and you were proof
against the whole arcana of beauty, and all the artillery of the graces;
but no sooner are you for one moment _tete a tete_ with a fashionable
belle, than your heroism and your resolutions are vanquished, your
former ties dissolved, and your deceased charmer totally forgotten or
neglected, by the virtue of a single glance. Well, so it is: _Amor
vincit omnia_ is my motto; to thee all conquering beauty, our firmest
determinations must bow. I cannot censure you for discovering, though
late, that one living object is really of more intrinsic value than two
dead ones. Indeed, sir, I cannot but applaud your determination."

"The laws of honour, said Alonzo, smiling, compel me to submit to become
the subject of your raillery and deception; I am in your power."

"I acknowledge, said the officer, that I have a little deceived you,
my story was fiction founded on truth--the novel style: but for the
deceptive part, you may thank your little gipsey of a nymph there,
pointing to Melissa; she planned and I executed."

"How ready you gentlemen are, replied Melissa, when accused of
impropriety, to cast the blame on the defenceless! So it was with our
first parents, and so it is still. But you must remember that Alonzo is
yet to hear my story; there, sir, I have the advantage of you."

"Then I confess, said he, looking at Alonzo, you will be too