ould have
expected from the ardor of their love.

When she approached, the twilight was just sufficient to enable him to
perceive that her face was pale, and tinged apparently with melancholy,
if not with sorrow. After the first salutations were over, he was
proceeding to inquire into the cause of her depression, when, to his
utter surprise, she placed her hands upon her face, and burst into a fit
of grief.

Those who have loved need not be told that the most delightful office
of that delightful passion is to dry the tears of the beloved one who
is dear to us beyond all else that life contains. Connor literally
performed this office, and inquired, in a tone so soothing and full
of sympathy, why she wept, that her tears for a while only flowed the
faster. At length her grief abated, and she was able to reply to him.

"You ask me why I am raying," said the fair young creature; "but,
indeed, I cannot tell you. There has been a sinking of the heart upon me
during the greater part of this day. When I thought of our meeting I
was delighted; but again some heaviness would come over me that I can't
account for."

"I know what it is," replied Connor, "a very simple thing; merely the
terrible calm an' blackness of the evenin'. I was sunk myself a little."

"I ought to cry for a better reason," she returned. "In meeting you I
have done--an' am doing--what I ought to be sorry for--that is, a wrong
action that my conscience condemns."

"There is nobody perfect, my dear Una," said Connor; "an' none without
their failins; they have little to answer for that have no more than
you."

"Don't flatter me," she replied; "if you love me as you say, never
flatter me while you live; I will always speak what I feel, and I hope
you'll do the same."

"If I could spake what I feel," said he, "you would still say I
flattered you--it's not in the power of any words that ever were spoken,
to tell how I love you--how much my heart an' soul's fixed upon you.
Little you know, my own dear Una, how unhappy I am this minute, to see
you in low spirits. What do you think is the occasion of it? Spake now,
as you say you will do, that is, as you feel."

"Except it be that my heart brought me to meet you tonight contrary to
my conscience, I do not know. Connor, Connor, that heart is so strongly
in your favor, that if you were not to be happy neither could its poor
owner."

Connor for a moment looked into the future, but, like the face of the
sky a