“Darling, you are not that rascal’s wife, except by your sweet will. A forced marriage is no marriage. Look up, Brightie, you are mine yet, and I shall never let you go, until you bid me give you up.” She looked up, a faint smile for a moment wreathing her pale lips; but it quickly faded, and again releasing herself from his clasp, she said, sorrowfully: “No, I am not yours—you do not want me, else why did you send me that horrible paper to sign? And that cruel letter——” “What paper? What letter? I know not what you mean!” “Oh, don’t you!” she cried, wildly starting to her feet, then said, gravely, looking him full in the eye, “Robert Ellerton, do you indeed speak truly? Oh, I will bless you all the days of my life if you will tell me you did not write them.” She stretched out her clasped hands to him with such an eager, wistful look, that his heart ached within him, for he knew that, like himself, she must have suffered untold agony, and that in some way she had been led to believe him untrue to her. He took the little clasped hands tenderly in his own, and said, gazing earnestly in her eyes: “Dora, my own, I do not understand what you mean; tell me what it is that has caused your love to turn from me?” “Oh, not my love! That has always been yours; it is yours now and forever,” she sobbed, bowing her head, and resting it upon her clasped hands. “Well, then, explain what has caused this mistrust in me.” He drew her head to his bosom, and there she told him all. And he realized how near he had come to losing her, how cunningly the plot had been laid, and in his heart he blessed his friend, Fredrich Weimher, that he had come in time to save her. When she finished, he said: “My darling, I never penned one word of what you have repeated to me; both the letter and the paper which you signed were gross forgeries. You remember the dainty little bouquet which you threw to me; for a moment after I read the note which you concealed in it, I was so overwhelmed with joy—with the knowledge that you of all others were there to congratulate me upon my honors, that I was fairly dizzy; my head began to swim, and a mist was before my eyes. When I had collected myself sufficiently to glance at you, intending to look the love and joy I could not speak, you were leaving the hall. I started up, and was hastening after you, when a boy handed me a note, purporting to be from my father. It proved, like what you received, to be a forgery—a decoy to lure me here, where I have been detained as a prisoner ever since. You can imagine something of my agony and indignation, especially when I heard of the foul wrong that was being meditated against you. I have mourned and prayed, but all was of no avail. Now that I have you safe once again, I cannot be thankful enough.” He smiled, fondly drawing her closer to him, then added, slyly: “And if you really feel that you have signed away your right in me, why, we can make it all right again, in a very short time.”