wledgments which
were well due to the young and trembling woman who stood beside him.

"Take this little token, sweet Lucy," said he, throwing about her neck
the chain and casket which he had unbound from his own--"take this
little token of Ralph Colleton's gratitude for this night's good
service. I shall redeem it, if I live, at a more pleasant season, but
you must keep it for me now. I will not soon forget the devotedness with
which, on this occasion, you have perilled so much for a stranger.
Should we never again meet, I pray you to remember me in your prayers,
and I shall always remember you in mine."

He little knew, while he thus spoke in a manner so humbly of himself, of
the deep interest which his uniform gentleness of manner and respectful
deference, so different from what she had been accustomed to encounter,
had inspired in her bosom; and so small at this period was his vanity,
that he did not trust himself for a moment to regard the
conjecture--which ever and anon thrust itself upon him--that the
fearless devotion of the maiden in his behalf and for his safety, had in
reality a far more selfish origin than the mere general humanity of her
sex and spirit. We will not say that she would not have done the same by
any other member of the human family in like circumstances; but it is
not uncharitable to believe that she would have been less anxiously
interested, less warm in her interest, and less pained in the event of
an unfortunate result.

Clasping the gorgeous chain about her neck, his arm again gently
encircled her waist, her head drooped upon her bosom--she did not
speak--she appeared scarcely to feel. For a moment, life and all its
pulses seemed resolutely at a stand; and with some apprehensions, the
youth drew her to his bosom, and spoke with words full of tenderness.
She made no answer to his immediate speech; but her hands, as if
unconsciously, struck the spring which locked the casket that hung upon
the chain, and the miniature lay open before her, the dim light of the
moon shining down upon it. She reclosed it suddenly, and undoing it from
the chain, placed it with a trembling hand in his own; and with an
effort of calm and quiet playfulness, reminded him of the unintended
gift. He received it, but only to place it again in her hand, reuniting
it to the chain.

"Keep it," said he, "Miss Munro--keep it until I return to reclaim it.
It will be as safe in your hands--much safer, indeed, than in mine