and shook her head mournfully; replying,
after a brief pause:--

"I must not hear you, Ralph. I thank you, I thank Miss Colleton, for the
kindness of this invitation, but I dare not accept it. I can not go with
you to Carolina. My lot is here with my aunt, or where she goes. I must
not desert her. She is now even more destitute than myself."

"Impossible! Why, Lucy, your aunt tells me that she means to continue in
this establishment. How can you reconcile it to yourself to remain here,
with the peril of encountering the associations, such as we have already
known them, which seem naturally to belong to such a border region."

"You forget, Ralph, that it was here I met with you," was the sudden
reply, with a faint smile upon her lips.

"Yes; and I was driven here--by a fate, against my will--that we
_should_ meet, Lucy. But though we are both here, now, the region is
unseemly to both, and neither need remain an hour longer than it is
agreeable. Why should you remain out of your sphere, and exposed to
every sort of humiliating peril."

"You forget--my aunt."

"Ay, but what security is there that she will not give you another
uncle?"

"Oh, fie, Ralph!"

"Ay, she is too feeble of will, too weak, to be independent. She will
marry again, Lucy, and is not the woman to choose wisely. Besides, she
is not your natural aunt. She is so by marriage only. The tie between
you is one which gives her no proper claim upon you."

"She has been kind to me, Ralph."

"Yet she would have seen you sacrificed to this outlaw!"

Lucy shuddered. He continued:--

"Her kindness, lacking strength and courage, would leave you still to be
sacrificed, whenever a will, stronger than her own, should choose to
assert a power over you. She can do nothing for you--not even for your
security. You must not remain here, Lucy."

"Frankly, then, Ralph, I do not mean to do so long; nor does my aunt
mean it. She is feeble, as you say; and, knowing it, I shall succeed in
persuading her to sell out here, and we shall then remove to a more
civilized region, to a better society, where, indeed, if you knew it,
you would find nothing to regret, and see no reason to apprehend either
for my securities or tastes. We shall seek refuge among my
kindred--among the relatives of my mother--and I shall there be as
perfectly at home, and quite as happy, as I can be any where."

"And where is it that you go, Lucy?"

"Forgive me, Ralph, but I must not tell you."