"Nothing, dearest, nothing," I replied; "you have said enough; you have made me happy, most happy; happier than I almost ever fancied I should be. And yet much remains, dear Louise, before we can be fully happy together. I have to use every energy and every exertion to place myself in such a situation that I may rightly and wisely ask your hand. You, Louise, may have fully as much to do on your part. Ere you can be mine, they will press you to give your hand to others; they will command you, they will urge you--" "Never, never!" cried Louise, eagerly; "I will never hear them, I will never listen to them for a moment; from this instant, Henry, I am yours; and I promise--" "Nay, nay, dear Louise," I said, "let me not bind you by any promise; that I have, as yet, no right to do." "You bind me by no promise, Henry," she said, "but I bind myself. I will never listen to such a thing even for a moment, so let not that trouble your repose at any time. Believe nothing that you hear of the kind; doubt not, fear not, dear Henry. I am yours, and none but yours; when first you began to speak just now, and said you might perhaps find me the bride of another, though I had not thought of all this as I now have, yet I felt that it could never be so, and that never, never would you find me the wife of any one." We spoke longer upon the same theme, we dwelt upon our thoughts and feelings; agitation, and emotion, and timidity in some degree passed from Louise's mind, and gradually she let me see more and more deeply into the recesses of her heart, and made me at each instant happier by showing that I was beloved as fully and deeply as I could wish. We lingered for a considerable time under those fir-trees; and then again we walked down the hill to the hamlet, but turned before we reached the camp, and walked some way farther round, and lingered still and turned again, and more than once hesitated, and paused, and spoke a few fond words more before we went back to that world between which and ourselves there was now drawn a thin and filmy screen, perceptible to none but ourselves, but yet sufficient to be a perfect separation. It seemed as if love was now at home in our mutual bosoms, and the casements of the heart were closed. Good La Tour was for the time our only confidant, if I may so call it; for in the evening he questioned me closely as soon as he found an opportunity, and I told him at once that I had spoken with Louise upon the subject of my love, and that with joy unutterable I had found it was returned. I farther added, that I had bound her by no promise; that she was free from all but such engagements as her own heart imposed upon her; but that now to obtain her was the end and object of my existence, and that to him I trusted at least to throw some impediment in the way of her union with one where misery was the only fortune that she could expect.