f going to sea?"

"So far will I answer you, that it has decided me to go to sea; but I
pray you ask no more. It is painful to refuse you, and my duty forbids
me to speak further."

For some minutes they were both silent, when Amine resumed--

"You were so anxious to possess that relic, that I cannot help thinking
it has connection with the mystery. Is it not so?"

"For the last time, Amine, I will answer your question--it has to do
with it; but now no more."

Philip's blunt and almost rude manner of finishing his speech was not
lost upon Amine, who replied:--

"You are so engrossed with other thoughts, that you have not felt the
compliment shown you by my taking such interest about you, sir?"

"Yes, I do--I feel and thank you too, Amine. Forgive me, if I have been
rude; but recollect, the secret is not mine--at least, I feel as if it
were not. God knows, I wish I never had known it, for it has blasted
all my hopes in life."

Philip was silent; and when he raised his eyes, he found that Amine's
were fixed upon him.

"Would you read my thoughts, Amine, or my secret?"

"Your thoughts, perhaps--your secret I would not; yet do I grieve that
it should oppress you so heavily as evidently it does. It must, indeed,
be one of awe to bear down a mind like yours, Philip."

"Where did you learn to be so brave, Amine?" said Philip, changing the
conversation.

"Circumstances make people brave or otherwise; those who are accustomed
to difficulty and danger fear them not."

"And where have you met with them, Amine?"

"In the country where I was born, not in this dank and muddy land."

"Will you trust me with the story of your former life, Amine? I can be
secret, if you wish."

"That you can be secret, perhaps, against my wish, you have already
proved to me," replied Amine, smiling; "and you have a claim to know
something of the life you have preserved. I cannot tell you much, but
what I can will be sufficient. My father, when a lad, on board of a
trading vessel, was taken by the Moors, and sold as a slave to a Hakim,
or physician, of their country. Finding him very intelligent, the Moor
brought him up as an assistant, and it was under this man that he
obtained a knowledge of the art. In a few years he was equal to his
master; but, as a slave, he worked not for himself. You know, indeed it
cannot be concealed, my father's avarice. He sighed to become as
wealthy as his master, and to obtain his freedom; he