'"Can you not read it now?" she asked in a low voice, as she cast her long lashes down. 'I uttered her name and drew her close to me, my heart beating wildly the while, in doubt whether this was one of the daring little speeches I spoke of. 'Taking her sweet little face between my hands, I kissed her eyes and forehead, on which she said, in her low cooing voice: '"I wonder if you will ever think of me after you are gone?" '"Darling, do you think there will ever be a day of my life when I will not think you! Oh, the thought of our parting is worse than death to me!" ('A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind,' thought Lewie, becoming fully interested now.) '"We are jesting," said she; "do not say this." '"There is no need to tell you that I love you," said I, "for you know that I do--dearly, fondly: that this love will last with life, end with death;" and much more rubbish I said to the same purpose, adding, "And you, if quite free, could you love me?" '"I love you now; have I not admitted as much?" 'So it all came about in that way,' said the General; 'umph--what an ass I was! May you never live to be deceived as that girl deceived me! I thought our passion was mutual; and then perhaps she thought so too--all perfidious though she was! 'But how happy--how radiantly happy I was for a time, till a Dutch squadron came to anchor off the bar of the Berbice river, and in one of the lieutenants thereof she discovered, or said she discovered, a kinsman; and from that moment a blight fell upon me, and I discovered that she was variable as the wind. Her attentions seemed divided for a time; at last they were no longer given to me. Her smiles were for the stranger; she sang to him, played to him, and talked to him only. At home or abroad, riding or driving, or boating on the river, he was ever by her side when not on board his ship. 'What rage and mortification were in my heart! The rules of the service alone prevented me calling him to a terrible account, though indeed he was not to blame. 'When I attempted to reason or remonstrate with her, she laughed; then after a time became indignant. We parted in anger, and I felt fury and death in my heart when she tossed my engagement-ring at my feet. 'Once again we met, alone, and by the merest chance. How my pulses throbbed as our eyes met, and she coyly presented her hand, which I was craven enough, and fool enough, to fondle! '"Oh, what have I done," said I, "that you should treat me thus? that you should tread my heart under your feet, and leave me to long years of sorrow and repining?" 'Then she laughed, and snatched her hand away, while once again my soul seemed to die within me. '"Do you love this kinsman?" I asked her fiercely; and never till my last hour shall I forget her reply, or the almost cruel expression of her face. '"Yes; I love him--love him with my whole heart, and as I never loved you!"