exclaimed her father, entreatingly!

"Oh, beloved father," sobbed the poor girl, "to lose Gustave _forever_!
The dreadful thought overwhelms me! While I am near you I will bless God
for his kindness; but my tears overpower me; oh! let me weep, let me
weep, I beseech you!"

De Vlierbeck pressed his daughter more closely to his heart, and
respected her affliction in silence.

The stillness of death reigned throughout the apartment, while they
remained locked in each other's arms until the very excess of grief
relaxed their embrace and opened their hearts to mutual consolation.

CHAPTER VI.

Four days after Denecker had refused his consent to the marriage, a
hired carriage might have been Been drawing up carefully in a screen of
wood that bordered a by-road about half a league from Grinselhof. A
young man got out of it, and, giving directions to the coachman to await
him at a neighboring inn, walked briskly across the moor toward the old
_chateau_. As soon as Grinselhof began to loom up over the trees, he
moved cautiously along behind the hedges and thickets, as if seeking to
avoid observation; and then, stealing across the bridge, he opened the
gate, passed through the dense copse that surrounded the house, and
entered the garden.

The first object that greeted his sight was Lenora, seated at her table
beneath the well-known catalpa, with her head resting on the board,
evidently absorbed in sorrow. Her back was turned toward him as he
approached; and, although he advanced with the utmost caution, the
sound of his footsteps disturbed her in the intense silence of the spot,
and she leaped to her feet, while the name of Gustave broke in surprised
accents from her lips. She was evidently anxious to escape into the
house; but her lover threw himself on his knees, and, grasping her hand,
poured forth a passionate appeal:--

"Listen to me, Lenora! listen to me! If you fly and refuse me the
consolation of telling you with my last farewell, all I have suffered
and all I hope, I will either die here at your feet, or I will go hence
forever, a broken-hearted wanderer over the face of the earth! Listen to
me! listen to me! Listen to me, Lenora, my sister, my beloved, my
betrothed! By our pure and holy love, I beseech you not to repulse me!"

Though Lenora trembled in every limb, her features assumed an expression
of wounded pride, as she answered, with cold decision,--

"Your boldness surprises me, sir! You are ind