guine hopes. Ellen made her appearance, leaning
on the gentleman's arm; they were out enjoying the pleasure of an excursion
into the quiet woods, and to his infinite gratification, wended their way
to his immediate neighborhood.

Fortune sometimes favors the wicked, and, in this instance, she smiled on
the villain; for the lovers, fancying the spot, seated themselves on the
trunk of a fallen tree, that lay close to the one in which he had ensconced
himself, and by placing his ear near the orifice, he could distinctly hear
what passed between them.

"It is so refreshing to sit in the shade of the 'gray old forest,'" said
Ellen. "I have not enjoyed such a treat these many months."

"Why, with your facilities, I should think you would recreate every day in
pleasant weather."

"That was my habit formerly; but the last time I ventured out alone, I met
with an unexpected streak of ill luck, which has deterred me ever since
from laying myself liable to a repetition of the same bad fortune."

"Indeed! You have not informed me of this before."

"For the simple reason that more agreeable thoughts and memories have
occupied my mind; and, after all, it is hardly worth relating, though it
made me feel very unpleasant for a time."

"I must know of this adventure."

"It was only the unlooked-for appearance of my old and sworn enemy, Durant,
who made another attempt to deceive me; but failing in his designs, finally
renewed his threats of revenge."

She then, at her lover's request, narrated the incidents of her interview
with Durant, as already known to the reader.

"Strange that the villain should form such an unaccountable dislike for
you, when you never injured him in the least."

"I think his bad nature was excited, and his ill-will increased, by a few
words of merited rebuke I was forced, by his unmanliness, to pronounce
against him, the last time he was at our house in Virginia."

"And you have heard nothing from him since the day he obtruded himself upon
your notice here in the woods?"

"Nothing direct or definite, though I think he made an attempt to capture
me, with the aid of some Indians, soon afterward, but failed in his object
from some cause. But notwithstanding I have heard no direct tidings from
him, I feel a constant dread of evil, as though some impending calamity was
hanging over me."

"Such fears had better be banished at once from your mind."

"I know it, and have tried to get rid of them, but the