“Oh, Hugh!” she answered; “it was indeed a task difficult to execute, but you so earnestly wished me to meet you that I am here.” “It is shameful of me to doubt you, Helen, after the proofs of affection which you have bestowed upon me, yet I know the full value of my prize, and I so fear to lose it.” “And you still love me, Hugh?” she asked, thoughtfully. “Love you!--oh, Helen! why do you ask that terrible question? Have I changed in look, in word, in thought, in act?” he exclaimed, earnestly. “No!” she said, “oh, no! yet do you not think a time may come when your love for me will be diverted to another?” “Helen!” “Can you not, Hugh, imagine a time when one fairer, less exacting, more gentle, than myself, may win from me that love you say I now alone possess?” “Helen, this language affrights me--I do not understand it!” he exclaimed, in a tone of surprise; and then added, passionately, “surely it is not for you to hazard such a terrible supposition! I love you, Helen--I have sworn it! I shall never change, never swerve from that adoration, that idolatry, with which I worship you. Oh! we are about to part for a time, Helen, and is this a moment to raise such doubts?” She remained silent. He pressed his clenched hand upon his heart, and said, with deep emotion-- “Helen, I repeat, we are about to part: you cannot have met me to tell me that the love you have declared for me, the love which you have proved, and which I have, oh! so fondly, so dearly cherished, has faded suddenly away at a moment, and you wish that the separation commencing now should last for ever? You dare not do it!” “Oh! no, no, Hugh, no!” she cried earnestly. “Helen!” he ejaculated, in low but deep tones, as though his very existence depended upon her answer, “you have, as I believe, proved to me that you loved me; you love me still, do you not?” “Oh! yes, yes, Hugh,” she returned, with fervour, “I do, indeed, Hugh, love you with my whole soul.” She sank upon his breast, and he pressed his lips to hers, passionately. At this instant there was the sound of a footstep upon the gravel path. She sprang from his embrace. “For Heaven’s sake, be silent!” she whispered. She turned her eyes in the direction of the advancing footsteps, and saw, approaching the spot where she stood with her companion, the Honorable Lester Vane. CHAPTER VII.--LOVE AWAKENING. Oh, love! no habitant of earth thou art-- An unseen seraph, we believe in thee, A faith, whose martyrs are the broken heart, But never yet hath seen, nor e’er shall see The naked eye, thy form, as it should be; The mind hath made thee, as it peopled heaven, Even with its own desiring phantasy, And to a thought such shape and image given, As haunts, the unquench’d soul--parch’d, wearied, wrung, and riven.