Greece, dearest; you must await my return in this country." "You go to die!" she exclaimed, "and I am to be far away. No, dear father, I am a little girl, but no harm can happen to me. The Ionian Isles are under the English government--there, at least, I may go. Athens too, I dare say, is safe. Dear Athens--we spent a happy winter there before the revolution began. You forget what a traveller I am--how accustomed to find my home among strangers in foreign and savage lands. No, dear father, you will not leave me behind. I am not unreasonable--I do not ask to follow you to the camp--but you must let me be near--in the same country as yourself." "You force me to yield against my better reason," said Falkner. "This is not right--I feel that it is not so--one of your sex, and so young, ought not to be exposed to all I am about to encounter; and if I should die, and leave you there desolate?" "There are good Christians everywhere to protect the orphan," persisted Elizabeth. "As if you could die when I am with you! And if you died while I was far, what would become of me? Am I to be left, like a poor sailor's wife--to get a shocking, black-sealed letter, to tell me that, while I was enjoying myself, and hoping that you had long been--It is wicked to speak of these things--but I shall go with my own dear, dear father, and he shall not die!" Falkner yielded to her tears, her caresses, and persuasions. He was not convinced, but he could not withstand the excess of grief she displayed at the thought of parting. It was agreed that she should accompany him to the Ionian Isles, and take up her residence there while he joined the patriot band in Greece. This point being decided upon, he was anxious that their departure should not be delayed a single hour, for most earnest was he to go, to throw off the sense of the present--to forget his pangs in anticipated danger.