tables
after the missing object.

"I believe so. At least, the poor child attaches great value to it."

"Oh dear!" sighed O'Shea. "If it was an old bodkin that was given me by
one I loved, I 'd go through fire and water to get possession of it."

"Indeed!" said she, smiling at the unwonted energy of the protestation.

"I would," repeated he, more solemnly. "It's not the value of the
thing itself I 'd ever think of. There's the ring was wore by
my great-grandmother Ram, of Ram's Mountain; and thongh it's a
rose-amethyst, worth three hundred guineas, it's only as a family token
it has merit in my eyes."

Now this speech, discursive though it seemed, was artfully intended
by the Honorable Member, for while incidentally throwing out claims to
blood and an ancestry, it cunningly insinuated what logicians call the
_a fortiori_,--how the man who cared so much for his grandmother would
necessarily adore his wife.

"We must give it up, I see," said May. "She has evidently not lost it
here."

"And it was a heart, you say!" sighed the Member.

"Yes, a little golden heart with a ruby clasp."

"Oh dear! And to think that I've lost my own in the self-same spot"

"Yours! Why, had you a locket too?"

"No, my angel!" cried he, passionately, as he clasped her hand, and fell
on his knee before her, "but my heart,--a heart that lies under your
feet this minute! There, don't turn away,--don't! May I never, if I
know what's come over me these two months back! Night or day, it is the
one image is always before me,--one voice always in my ears."

"How tiresome that must be!" said she, laughing merrily. "There,
pray let go my hand; this is only folly, and not in very good taste,
either."

"Folly, you call it? Love is madness, if you like. Out of this spot I
'll never stir till I know my fate. Say the word, and I'm the happiest
man or the most abject creature--You 're laughing again,--I wonder how
you can be so cruel!"

"Really, sir, if I regard your conduct as only absurd, it is a favorable
view of it," said she, angrily.

"Do, darling of my soul! light of my eyes! loadstar of my whole
destiny!--do take a favorable view of it," said he, catching at her last
words.

"I have certainly given you no pretence to make me ridiculous, sir,"
said she, indignantly.

"Ridiculous! ridiculous!" cried he, in utter amazement "Sure it's my
hand I 'm offering you. What were you thinking of?"

"I believe I apprehend you aright, sir, and h