"You do not believe me! You do not see that I am in terrible earnest! I tell you, Dr. Grimshaw, that were I induced to consent to be your wife, you had better not take advantage of such a consent! It would be the most fatal day's work you ever did for yourself in this world! You think I'm only a spoiled, petulant child! You do not know me! I do not know myself! I am full of evil! I feel it sensibly, when I am near you! You develop the worst of me! Should you marry me, the very demon would rise in my bosom! I should drive you to distraction!" "You drive me to distraction now, you intoxicating little witch!" he exclaimed, laughing and darting towards her. She started and escaped his hand, crying: "Saints in heaven! What infatuation! What madness! It must be fate! Avert the fate, man! Avert it! while there is yet time! Go get a mill-stone and tie it around your neck and cast yourself into the uttermost depths of the sea before ever you dare to marry me!" Her cheeks were blazing with color and her eyes with light! He saw only her transcendant beauty. "Why, you little tragi-comic enchantress, you!--what do you mean? Come to my arms! Come, wild, bright bird! come to my bosom!" he said, stepping towards her and throwing his arms around her. "Vampire!" she exclaimed, struggling to free herself for a moment; and then as his lips sought hers the color faded from her face and the light died in her eyes, and he hastily released her and set her in a chair lest she should swoon in his hated arms. "Now, how am I expected to live with such a wife as this girl would make me? If it were not for the estate I should be tempted to give her up, and travel to forget her! How shall I overcome her repugnance? Not by courting her; that's demonstrated. Only by being kind to her, and letting her alone." Such was the tenor of his thoughts as he stood a little behind her chair out of her sight. But Jacquelina, when she found herself free, soon recovered, and arose and left the room. Until a day or two before Christmas, when, in the evening, she glided in to her uncle's room and sunk down by his side--so unlike herself; so like a spirit--that the old sinner impulsively shrank away from her, and put out his hand to ring for lights. "No; don't send for candles, uncle! Such a wretch as I am should tell her errand in the dark." "What do you mean now, minx?" "Uncle, in all your voyages around the world did you ever stop at Constantinople? And did you ever visit a slave mart there?" "Yes; of course I have! What then? What the deuce are you dreaming of?" "How much would such a girl as myself bring in the slave market of the Sultan's city?" "Are you crazy?" asked the commodore, opening his eyes to their widest extent. "I don't know. If I am, it can make little difference in your plans. But as there is method in my madness, please to answer my question. How much would I sell for in Constantinople?"