"Yes! I _do_ mean that!" And there was a fervid glow in Leonard's countenance. "All my life I have had a restlessness impelling me to seek--I knew not what--in distant lands. All my life I have had strange dreams and visions; not only in the stillness of the night, but also amidst the busy hum of day, and in all these one form was ever present; it hovered round me so that I could almost see and touch it. But--and now comes the strange part of it--that first day I set eyes on you, the moment you drew near, I saw in you the living image of her who had been the central figure of my waking visions, and held sweet converse with me while I slept. Then--when my eyes met yours--I understood it all! I knew then what had led me hither; what it was I had unconsciously been seeking, and wherefore I had been restless and unsatisfied at home. I knew that in you I had discovered all I craved for--the sweet fulfilment of my soul's desire. And then--then--I saw you in the grasp of one who would have slain you! And my heart stood still, for I knew that, unless my hand were steady and my eye unerring, in striving to save your life I might destroy it. Oh, think, think what must have been my anguish! Think, how----Ah! never will you know a tenth of what I suffered in that brief space; or my relief and thankfulness when I saw him fall, and you stand scatheless!" The young girl looked shyly at him; then, noting the love-light in his eyes, and the glowing flush upon his cheeks, the while he had poured out all that he had felt for her, an answering blush stole over her own fair cheek; while a coy, dainty little smile seemed to flit airily around her mouth, setting into little dimples first here then there; in like manner as a ray of light, reflected from a mirror, will dance coquettishly to and fro in obedience to the hand that moves the glass. There was silence for a space, she gazing downwards at the water, but now and then stealing a shy glance at her companion. Then another line of thought passed over her mind and shadowed her face for a moment. "I wonder," she said with touching innocence, "what people see in me to like so much? I fear it is not always well that this should be. It was that which led--Zelus"--she shivered at the name--"to thrust himself upon, and at last threaten me, and has placed you in danger for having slain him. It is very strange! To like, to love, should mean naught but happiness and loving-kindness and innocent delight; yet here it has led a man to attempt an awful crime, and has placed others in great peril." "It was not _love_ on that man's part," said Leonard, savagely, between his teeth. "At least, not the sort of love that urged _me_ on, that has guided me--even as the unwinding of a clue leads the traveller through the maze--to the side of her I loved and worshipped in my visions. Mine is not the love that could ever do its object hurt; that could ever----"