tender; and to re-awaken
hope in his heart would be only cruelty. And, therefore, and for other
reasons also, she did not look him in the face as she spoke.

He answered so cheerfully that she was half disappointed, in spite of
her remorse, at his not being as miserable as she had expected. Still,
if he had overcome the passion, it was so much better for him. But yet
Valencia hardly wished that he should have overcome it, so
self-contradictory is woman's heart; and her pity had sunk to half-ebb,
and her self-complacency was rising with a flowing tide, as he chatted on
quietly, but genially, about the voyage, and the scenery, and Snowdon,
which he had never seen, and which he would ascend that very day.

"You will do nothing of the kind, Mr. Headley!" cried Lucia. "Is he not
mad, Major Campbell, quite mad?"

"I know I am mad, my dear Mrs. Vavasour; I have been so a long time: but
Snowdon ponies are in their sober senses,--and I shall take one of
them."

"Fulfil the old pun?--Begin beside yourself, and end beside your horse!
I am sure he is not strong enough to sit over those rocks. No, you shall
stay at home comfortably here; Valencia and I will take care of you."

"And mon Saint Pere too. I have a thousand things to say to him."

"And so has he to Queen Whims."

So Scoutbush sent Bowie for "John Jones Clerk," the fisherman (may his
days be as many as his salmon, and as good as his flies!), and the four
stayed at home, and talked over the Aberalva tragedies, till, as it
befell, both Lucia and Campbell left the room awhile.

Immediately Frank rose, and walking across to Valencia, laid the fatal
ring on the arm of her chair, and returned to his seat without a word.

"You are very--. I hope that it--," stammered Valencia.

"You hope that it was a comfort to me? It was; and I shall be always
grateful to you for it."

Valencia heard an emphasis on the "was." It checked the impulse (foolish
enough) which rose in her, to bid him keep the ring.

So, prim and dignified, she slipped it into its place on her finger, and
went on with her work; merely saying,--

"I need not say that I am happy that anything which I could do should
have been of use to you in such a fearful time."

"It was a fearful time! but for myself, I cannot be too glad of it. God
grant that it may have been as useful to others as to me! It cured me of
a great folly. Now I look back, I am astonished at my own absurdity,
rudeness, presumption.--You