. She
whose features it describes will not chide, that, at a moment of peril,
I place it in the care of one as gentle as herself."

Her eyes were downcast, as, again receiving it, she inquired with a
girlish curiosity, "Is her name Edith, Mr. Colleton, of whom these
features are the likeness!"

The youth, surprised by the question, met the inquiry with another.

"How know you?--wherefore do you ask?"

She saw his astonishment, and with a calm which had not, during the
whole scene between them, marked her voice or demeanor, she replied
instantly:--

"No matter--no matter, sir. I know not well why I put the
question--certainly with no object, and am now more than answered."

The youth pondered over the affair in silence for a few moments,
but desirous of satisfying the curiosity of the maiden, though on
a subject and in relation to one of whom he had sworn himself to
silence--wondering, at the same time, not less at the inquiry than the
knowledge which it conveyed, of that which he had locked up, as he
thought, in the recesses of his own bosom--was about to reply, when a
hurried step, and sudden noise from the upper apartment of the house,
warned them of the dangers of further delay. The maiden interrupted with
rapid tones the speech he was about to commence:--

"Fly, sir--fly. There is no time to be lost. You have lingered too long
already. Do not hesitate longer--you have heard the determination of
Rivers--this disappointment will only make him more furious. Fly, then,
and speak not. Take the left road at the fork: it leads to the river. It
is the dullest, and if they pursue, they will be most likely to fall
into the other."

"Farewell, then, my good, my protecting angel--I shall not forget
you--have no apprehensions for me--I have now but few for myself. Yet,
ere I go--" and he bent down, and before she was conscious of his
design, his lips were pressed warmly to her pale and beautiful forehead.
"Be not vexed--chide me not," he murmured--"regard me as a brother--if I
live I shall certainly become one. Farewell!"

Leaping with a single bound to his saddle, he stood erect for a moment,
then vigorously applying his spurs, he had vanished in an instant from
the sight. She paused in the doorway until the sounds of his hurrying
progress had ceased to fall upon her ears; then, with a mournful spirit
and heavy step, slowly re-entered the apartment.

CHAPTER XX.

THE OUTLAW AND HIS VICTIM.

Lucy Munro re