But to say nothing of the affection which the younger Darnley entertained for the lady, and the pleasing hopes with which for so long a period he had been accustomed to think of her, he could not think it possible for a mind like hers ever to descend to the meanness with which she had been charged. He did think it possible that, in consequence of a supposed neglect on his part, and by means of ingenious assiduities on the part of another, that her regards might be transferred from him; but even that he would not believe without positive evidence. Many a faithful heart had been broken, and many an honest man has been hanged, by circumstantial evidence. The meeting of the lovers was silent. They might have been previously studying speeches; but these were forgotten on both sides. And in their silence their looks explained to each other how much they had respectively suffered from the villany of him who had interrupted their correspondence. After a long and silent embrace, and gazing again and again at those features which he had so loved to think of at a mighty distance, Darnley at length was able to speak, and he said: "And you have not forgotten me!" How cold these words do look on paper. But from the living lips which spoke them, and from the energetic tenderness with which they were uttered, and from the thought of that mental suffering and that withering of heart which had been occasioned by the fear of forgetfulness, and above all from the circumstance that these were the first words which Penelope had heard from those lips for so long, so very long a period, they came to her ear and heart with a thrilling power, and awakened her from her silent trance to the expression of that feeling which had almost subdued her. "Forget!" she was attempting to echo her lover's words, but emotion was too strong for the utterance of words, and she finished her answer by falling on his neck and weeping audibly. Might it not have done Lord Spoonbill good to have witnessed this scene? Surely it might have taught him how little prospect there was of the success of his designs; and he might, had he possessed the ordinary feelings of humanity, have thought that the coronet must be brilliant indeed which could tempt Penelope to renounce her lover. But Lord Spoonbill saw it not, and suspected it not; if he had, it certainly would have saved him a great deal of trouble.