It was not till on board the vessel which was to convey her to her long-loved though stranger home, and that the first surprise had in some degree subsided, that her thoughts were again able to dwell on her own future fate. After a long and thoughtful silence, she thus addressed Evans:-- "It would be impossible that a person who was good should fail to love her husband, would it not?" "A woman's first duty, madam, is towards her husband." "Then I trust I shall assuredly love the Earl of Nithsdale," she replied with a brightened countenance; "for when my confessor parted from me, he bestowed on me this little crucifix, which was brought from Our Lady's holy convent at Einsiedlin, and giving me his benediction, he told me I had been ever a good girl, and that he felt confident I should prove myself a virtuous woman. I have felt happier from that moment; for since Father Albert says so, I suppose I must prove virtuous, and fulfil my duties, whatever they may be." "I wish her grace, your honoured mother, were present," answered Evans, "to hear you speak so beautifully and so properly!" "But if I should not love Lord Nithsdale, I shall be sinful!" exclaimed Lady Winifred with a look of terror. "Young ladies' minds should not be turned upon such subjects as love: it is a word which does not befit a maiden's lips," replied Rachael Evans, with an expression of severity in her countenance. The Lady Winifred was silent and abashed. She feared to have been unmaidenly in her questions, and she buried within her own bosom the emotions which she could not subdue. It was long before she again ventured to address her companion. She found that years had not softened the old woman's character. She was faithfully devoted to the objects of her loyalty--the Herbert family, the exiled Stuarts, and after them the mountains of Wales; she did not imagine that any doubts or scruples could lawfully interfere where duty towards either of the first-mentioned objects was in question.