ll!"

"No, my love. But--this cold air comes wondrous keen across my bosom,"
said he, looking wistfully on the child, who, scarcely knowing why,
threw her little arms about his neck, and wept.

"My dream, I fear, hath strange omens in it," said the lady
thoughtfully.

The same red star shot fiercely up from the dusky horizon; the same
bright beam was on the wave; and the mysterious incidents of the
fisherman's hut came like a track of fire across Harrington's memory.

"Yonder is that strange woman again that has troubled us about the
house these three days," said Mrs Harrington, looking out from the
balcony; "we forbade her yesterday. She comes hither with no good
intent."

Harrington looked over the balustrade. A female stood beside a pillar,
gazing intently towards him. Her eye caught his own; it was as if a
basilisk had smitten him. Trembling, yet fascinated, he could not turn
away his glance; a smile passed on her dark-red visage--a grin of joy
at the discovery.

"Surely," thought he, "'tis not the being who claims my child!" But
the woman drew something from her hand, which, at that distance,
Harrington recognised as his pledge. His lady saw not the signal;
without speaking, he obeyed. Hastening down-stairs, a private
audience confirmed her demand, which the miserable Harrington durst
not refuse.

Two days he was mostly in private. Business with the steward was the
ostensible motive. He had sent an urgent message to his friend
Molyneux, who, on the third day, arrived at H----, where they spent
many hours in close consultation. The following morning Grace came
running in after breakfast. She flung her arms about his neck.

"Let me not leave you to-day," she sobbed aloud.

"Why, my love?" said Harrington, strangely disturbed at the request.

"I do not know!" replied the child, pouting.

"To-day I ride out with Sir Ralph to the Meer, and as thou hast often
wished--because it was forbidden, I guess--thou shalt ride with us a
short distance; I will toss thee on before me, and away we'll
gallop--like the Prince of Trebizond on the fairy horse."

"And shall we see the mermaid?" said the little maiden quickly, as
though her mind had been running on the subject.

"I wish the old nurse would not put such foolery in the girl's head,"
said Mrs Harrington impatiently. "There be no mermaids now, my love."

"What! not the mermaid of Martin Meer?" inquired the child, seemingly
disappointed.

Harrington left the