"Sweetheart? not she whose voice was music-sweet, Whose face loaned language to melodious prayer; Sweetheart I called her.--When did she repeat Sweet to one hope or heart to one despair?" --CAWEIN. To the man crouching behind the door which Joscelyn had left open, the minute it took her to traverse the hall and gain the head of the stairs at the far end, seemed a lifetime. Even in his dire peril the thought of a bygone day came back to him--"loyal, though a Loyalist," he had said of her, and had believed it. What a sweetheart to have coddled in one's thoughts and dreamed of, waking and sleeping,--this girl who would in cold blood hand him over to death because of a fancied duty! Escape by the way he came was impossible; he could only wait here and sell his life at the highest price. Ay, there should be left in this room a memory that would exile her from it forever; the blood that had beat for her and which she had betrayed, should redden her floor and stain the dainty things she loved. His sword had been thrown away when he quitted his horse, since it cumbered his flight; but his pistols and dirk were still upon him, and he made ready for their use. Then through the crevice of the hinge, he beheld Joscelyn as she faced about in the brighter light at the head of the stairs, and the weapon well-nigh slipped from his hand as he saw her hold up the bit of shard she still carried, and say, with a smile, to those below:-- "'Tis not worth while your coming. What need to waste time on the senseless offender when the offence is beyond repair? My very last flowering almond is a hopeless wreck, and I had nursed it with such care!" She ended with a sigh and a pretty pout, and went slowly down the stair out of Richard's sight; but the voices from below reached him distinctly, so that he heard the officers' condolences and her laughing replies. Great drops of perspiration broke out upon his brow as the joyous truth dawned fully upon him. She did not intend to betray his presence in the house to the scarlet-coated bloodhounds who would tear him limb from limb! How could he ever have mistrusted her, this one woman whom he had loved with the passion of youth and of manhood? He sank to a sitting posture upon the floor, propping himself against the wall, for he was desperately weary with the long, hard chase, and this relief was as the opening of Paradise before his aching eyes. His limbs relaxed; but his ears were strained to catch every sound that came up the stairway. The game of cards had been renewed, and the merriment was at its height, when twenty minutes later there was again a commotion in the street and a loud summons at the door. "May it please your lordship," said Tarleton's voice, "the fellow hath give us the slip and is in hiding with some of his sympathizers. We wish a permit to search the houses in this neighbourhood, for hereabouts he must be, since he was seen last at yonder corner."