er's fate again took entire possession of
her heart. She paused and listened. The wily Jesuit had again conquered,
and He who rules the universe with such mysterious justice, had
permitted evil once more to triumph over innocence.

"Yes," repeated Bernard, regaining his composure with his success; "I
will save him. I mistook your character, Miss Temple. I had thought you
the simple-hearted girl, who for the sake of her lover's life would sell
her heart to his preserver. I now recognize in you the high-spirited
woman, who, conscious of right, would meet her own despair in its
defence. Alas! in thus losing you for ever, I have just found you
possessed of qualities which make you doubly worthy to be won. But I
resign you to him whom you have chosen, and in my admiration for the
woman, I have almost lost my hatred for the man. For your sake, Miss
Temple, Major Hansford shall not want my warm interposition with the
Governor in his behalf. Let my reward be your esteem or your contempt,
it is still my duty thus to atone for the wound which I have
unfortunately inflicted on your feelings. You will excuse and respect my
wish to end this painful interview."

And so he left the room, and Virginia once more alone, gave vent to her
emotions so long suppressed, in a flood of bitter tears.

"Well, Holliday," said Bernard, as he met that worthy in the hall, "I
hope you have been more fortunate with the red heifer than I with the
white hind--what says Mamalis?"

"The fact is, Cap'n, that same heifer is about as troublesome a three
year old as I ever had the breaking on. She seemed bent on hooking me."

"Did you not make use of the talisman I told you of?" asked Bernard.

"Well, I don't know what you call a tell-us-man," said Holliday, "but I
told her that you said she must remember Backinhead, and I'll warrant
it was tell-us-woman soon enough. Bless me, if she didn't most turn
white, for all her red skin, and she got the trimbles so that I began to
think she was going to have the high-strikes--and so says she at last;
says she, in kind of choking voice like, 'Well, tell him I will meet him
under the oak tree, as he wishes.'"

"Very well," said Bernard, "we will succeed yet, and then your hundred
pounds are made--my share is yours already if you be but faithful to
me--I am convinced he has been here," he continued, musing, and half
unconscious of Holliday's presence. "The hopeful interest that Virginia
feels, her knowledge of the