nn, encountering,
at the first step, upon entering the threshold, the person of the very
interesting girl, almost the only redeeming spirit of that
establishment. She had heard of the occurrence--as who, indeed, had
not--and the first expression of her face as her eyes met those of
Ralph, though with a smile, had in it something of rebuke for not having
taken the counsel which she had given him on his departure from the
place of prayer. With a gentleness strictly in character, he conversed
with her for some time on indifferent topics--surprised at every uttered
word from her lips--so musical, so true to the modest weaknesses of her
own, yet so full of the wisdom and energy which are the more legitimate
characteristics of the other sex. At length she brought him back to the
subject of the recent strife.

"You must go from this place, Mr. Colleton--you are not safe in this
house--in this country. You can now travel without inconvenience from
your late injuries, which do not appear to affect you; and the sooner
you are gone the better for your safety. There are those here"--and she
looked around with a studious caution as she spoke, while her voice sunk
into a whisper--"who only wait the hour and the opportunity to"--and
here her voice faltered as if she felt the imagined prospect--"to put
you to a merciless death. Believe me, and in your confident strength do
not despise my warnings. Nothing but prudence and flight can save you."

"Why," said the youth, smiling, and taking her hand in reply, "why
should I fear to linger in a region, where one so much more alive to its
sternnesses than myself may yet dare to abide? Think you, sweet Lucy,
that I am less hardy, less fearless of the dangers and the difficulties
of this region than yourself? You little know how much at this moment my
spirit is willing to encounter," and as he spoke, though his lips wore a
smile, there was a stern sadness in his look, and a gloomy contraction
of his brow, which made the expression one of the fullest melancholy.

The girl looked upon him with an eye full of a deep, though unconscious
interest. She seemed desirous of searching into that spirit which he had
described as so reckless. Withdrawing her hand suddenly, however, as if
now for the first time aware of its position, she replied hastily:--

"Yet, I pray you, Mr. Colleton, let nothing make you indifferent to the
warning I have given you. There is danger--more danger here to you than
to me-