e foot of the falls!"

"So do I with all my heart!--oh, no, I don't either!--I--I don't know what
I am talking about! My head is wild!" said Odalite, putting her hand to
her forehead.

Le looked at her wistfully.

"An old friend of your mother, eh?"

"Yes."

"Rich? Of high rank?"

"I--I believe so."

"Where is the man?"

"He is here at Mondreer, where he has been staying ever since he came down
with us at my father's invitation from Niagara."

"And you are going to marry him?"

"Oh, yes," replied Odalite, with a heartrending sigh. "It cannot be
helped. It is all settled."

"I see how it is! A friend of your mother, rich, and of high position; and
so they have yielded to the temptation of wealth and rank, and they have
forced or coaxed you into compliance with their wishes in consenting to
this dishonorable marriage! I did not think so of my uncle and aunt. But
this cannot, shall not go on! I shall insist upon my prior rights. Take
heart, my precious. I shall not let them destroy our happiness by parting
us. No, not for all the wealth and rank in the world!"

"Oh, Le! Le! you mistake! you mistake! Nobody forced me! Nobody persuaded
me! I am going to marry Col. Anglesea of my own free will! Indeed I am!
Oh, Le! Le!" wailed the unhappy girl.

The youth stared at her in speechless astonishment and bitter misery.

"Oh! don't look so, Le!--don't look so! I am not worth it, Le! Indeed I am
not!"

"Do I understand you to say that you break your engagement to me, and
marry this foreigner, of your own free, unbiased will?" he asked, at last,
in cold, hard, restrained tones.

"Yes, yes, yes! that is what I am going to do!" replied Odalite, with the
firmness of despair.

"Then you are false to me--to me, your lover, who had never a thought that
was false to you!--to me, your mate of many years!--to me, your almost
husband!" cried the youth, losing all self-command in the sharpness of his
pain, and bursting into a tempest of grief and rage, and launching fierce
reproaches upon her.

She raised her hands in piteous deprecation, and then held them up before
her head as if to shield it from the storm.

But as he flashed the lightnings of scorn and hurled the thunder of
condemnation upon her, she cowered lower and lower, holding by the bench
on which she sat, until at length, utterly overwhelmed, she sank to the
ground, rolled over, and lay with her face downward on the sand at his
feet.

But she uttered no w