So saying, she placed half the ringlet on the
shoulder of each gentleman, as they knelt in mock humility before her.
Some unutterable feeling seemed to compel Saville to _look_ the thanks
he would have spoken, but Edward, with a conscious privilege, seized
her hand, and kissing it, exclaimed, as he threw himself into "an
attitude,"

"Thy will, and thine alone,
For ever and a day,
By sea and land, through fire and flood,
We promise to obey."

CHAPTER II.

About a month after, Edward and his cousin found themselves listening
to the eloquent appeals of a well known temperance lecturer. He dwelt
upon the woes and ruins of intemperance, and the responsibility of
every one who did not do all in his power to remedy the evil. At the
close of the lecture the pledge was passed among the audience. When it
came to where they were sitting, Emma took it, and offering Edward her
pencil, whispered, "Let the Knight of the Ringlet perform his vow." He
looked at her inquiringly. She traced her own name beneath those
written there, and bade him do the same. For an instant he hesitated,
and was half offended with her for the stratagem, but good sense and
politeness both forbade a refusal, and he complied.

It was a more delicate task to exert the same influence over the proud
and sensitive George Saville, but at length the opportunity occurred.

One evening, as he mingled with the gay groups that filled the
splendid drawing-rooms of the fashionable Mrs. B----, one of his
acquaintance came up, and filling two glasses with wine that stood on
the marble side-table, offered one to him. As he was raising it to his
lips, a rose-bud fell over his shoulder into the glass, and a voice
near him said, in low, musical tones, "Touch it not, Knight of the
Ringlet, I command you by this token;" and turning, he saw Emma
standing beside him. As she met his gaze, she passed her delicate hand
through the dark curls that shaded her lovely face, and shaking her
finger at him impressively, was lost in the crowd. Saville stood
looking after her with a bewildered air, as if lost in thought, until
the laugh of his companion recalled him to himself. "Excuse me," he
said, putting down the glass. "You saw the spell flung over me, I am
under oath to obey the behests of beauty."

Emma watched him through the evening, but he seemed to avoid her, and
appeared thoughtful and sad. They did not meet again, until at a late
hour; she was stepp