"Doubt me not, uncle: I rave no longer. I am now calm--calm as it is possible for me to be, having such a sorrow as mine struggling at my heart. Why should I hide it from you? It will not be hidden. I love him--love him as woman never loved man before--with a soul and spirit all unreservedly his, and with no thought in which he is not always the principal. I know that he loves another; I know that the passion which I feel I must feel and cherish alone; that it must burn itself away, though it burn away its dwelling-place. I am resigned to such a fate; but I am not prepared for more. I can not bear that he too should die--and such a death! He must not die--he must not die, my uncle; though we save him--ay, save him--for another." "Shame on you, my daughter!--how can you confess so much? Think on your sex--you are a woman--think on your youth!" Such was the somewhat strongly-worded rebuke of the old lady. "I have thought on all--on everything. I feel all that you have said, and the thought and the feeling have been my madness. I must speak, or I shall again go mad. I am not the tame and cold creature that the world calls woman. I have been differently made. I can love in the world's despite. I can feel through the world's freeze. I can dare all, when my soul is in it, though the world sneer in scorn and contempt. But what I have said, is said to _you_. I would not--no, not for worlds, that he should know I said it--not for worlds!" and her cheeks were tinged slightly, while her head rested for a single instant upon the pillow. "But all this is nothing!" she started up, and again addressed herself to the landlord. "Speak, uncle! tell me, is there yet time--yet time to save him I When is it they say he must die?" "On Friday next, at noon." "And this--?" "Is Monday." "He must not die--no, not die, then, my uncle! _You_ must save him--you _must_ save him! You have been the cause of his doom: you must preserve him from its execution. You owe it him as a debt--you owe it me--you owe it to yourself. Believe not, my uncle, that there is no other day than this--no other world--no other penalties than belong to this. You read no bible, but you have a thought which must tell you that there are worlds--there is a life yet to come. I know you can not doubt--you must not doubt--you must believe. Have a fear of its punishments, have a hope of its rewards, and listen to my prayer. You must save Ralph Colleton; ask me not how--talk not of difficulties. You must save him--you must--you must!" "Why, you forget, Lucy, my dear child--you forget that I too am in danger. This is midnight: it is only at this hour that I can steal into the village; and how, and in what manner, shall I be able to do as you require?"