t such a time, unrestrained by the waking judgment, mingles up
the counsels and the warnings of your brother and the past, with all the
images and circumstances of the present time. But--go on with your
suggestion. Let me do what I can for the good of those in whom you are
interested."

"You are right: whatever may be my apprehensions, life is uncertain
enough, and needs no dreams to make it more so. Still, I can not rid
myself of this impression, which sticks to me like a shadow. Night after
night I have seen him--just as I saw him a year before he died. But his
looks were full of meaning; and when his lips opened, though I heard not
a word, they seemed to me to say, 'The hour is at hand!' I am sure they
spoke the truth, and I must prepare for it. _If I live_, Mr. Colleton,
Lucy must marry Rivers: there's no hope for her escape. If I die,
there's no reason for the marriage, for she can then bid him defiance.
She is willing to marry him now merely on my account; for, to say in
words, what you no doubt understand, _I_ am at his mercy. If I perish
before the marriage take place, it will not take place; and she will
then need a protector--"

"Say no more," exclaimed the youth, as the landlord paused for an
instant--"say no more. It will be as little as I can say, when I assure
you, that all that my family can do for her happiness--all that I can
do--shall be done. Be at ease on this matter, and believe me that I
promise you nothing which my heart would not strenuously insist upon my
performing. She shall be a sister to me."

As he spoke, the landlord warmly pressed his hand, leaning forward from
his saddle as he did so, but without a single accompanying word. The
dialogue was continued, at intervals, in a desultory form, and without
sustaining, for any length of time, any single topic. Munro seemed heavy
with gloomy thoughts; and the sky, now becoming lightened with the
glories of the ascending moon, seemed to have no manner of influence
over his sullen temperament. Not so with the youth. He grew elastic and
buoyant as they proceeded; and his spirit rose, bright and gentle, as if
in accordance with the pure lights which now disposed themselves, like
an atmosphere of silver, throughout the forest. The thin clouds,
floating away from the parent-orb, and no longer obscuring her progress,
became tributaries, and were clothed in their most dazzling
draperies--clustering around her pathway, and contributing not a little
to th