ust have been by the marked feeling, which she could
neither disguise nor he mistake, the youth did not, how ever, for a
moment seek to abuse it; but with a habit at once gentle and respectful,
combated the various arguments and suggestions which, with a single eye
to his safety, she urged for his departure. In so doing, he obtained
from her all the particulars of her discovery, and was at length
convinced that her apprehensions were by no means groundless. She had
accidentally come upon the conspirators at an interesting moment in
their deliberations, which at once revealed their object and its aim;
and he at length saw that, except in flight, according to her
proposition, the chances were against his escape at all. While they thus
deliberated, the distant sound of a chair falling below, occurring at an
hour so unusual, gave an added force to her suggestions, and while it
prompted anew her entreaties, greatly diminished his reluctance to the
flight.

"I will do just as you advise. I know not, Miss Munro, why my fate and
fortune should have provoked in you such an interest, unless it be that
yours being a less selfish sex than ours, you are not apt to enter into
calculations as to the loss of quiet or of personal risk, which, in so
doing, you may incur. Whatever be the motive, however, I am grateful for
its effects, and shall not readily forget the gentleness of that spirit
which has done so much for the solace and the safety of one so sad in
its aspect and so much a stranger in all respects."

The youth spoke with a tone and manner the most tender yet respectful,
which necessarily relieved from all perplexity that feeling of propriety
and maiden delicacy which otherwise must have made her situation an
awkward one. Ralph was not so dull, however, as not to perceive that to
a livelier emotion he might in justice attribute the conduct of his
companion; but, with a highly-honorable fastidiousness, he himself
suggested a motive for her proceeding which her own delicacy rendered
improper for her utterance. Still the youth was not marble exactly: and,
as he spoke, his arm gently encircled her waist; and her form, as if
incapable of its own support, hung for a moment, with apathetic
lifelessness, upon his bosom; while her head, with an impulse not
difficult to define, drooped like a bending and dewy lily upon his arm.
But the passive emotion, if we may so style it, was soon over; and, with
an effort, in which firmness and fee