"Thou wrongest me, Adeline; 'tis not my wish. Say thou art mine; we are then safe. No earthly power shall part us. But I warn thee, maiden, that long years of misery and anguish will be our portion should we separate while our troth is yet unplighted. This ring," said he, drawing off his glove, "is indifferently well set. The bauble was made by a skilful and cunning workman. The pearls have the true orient tinge, and this opal hath an eye like the hue of the morning, changeable as--woman's favour. How bright at times!--warm and radiant with gladness, now dull, cold, hazy, and"----unfeeling, he would have said, but he leaned on the slender barrier as he spoke, and his eye wandered away over the dim and distant wave, across which he was about to depart. Whether he saw it, or his eye was too intently fixed on the dark and appalling future, we presume not to determine. "A woman's favour, like thy similes, Mortimer, hath its colour by reflection. Thou seest but thine own beam in't; the hue and temper of thy spirit. We have no form nor feeling of our own, forsooth; we but give back the irradiation we receive." "Thou canst jest, Adeline. Thy chillness comes upon my spirit like the keen ice-wind; it freezes while it withers." The maiden turned aside her head, perhaps to hide a gleam of tenderness that belied her speech. "Adeline, dark hours of sorrow are before thee! Think not to escape." He seized her hand. "Shouldst thou wed another, a doom is thine--a doom from which even thought recoils." He looked steadfastly upon her, but the maiden spoke not; a tear quivered through her drooping eyelashes, and her lip grew pale. "But I must away," continued Mortimer. "Yonder bark awaits me," and he drew her gently towards the brink. "It will part us, perhaps for ever! No, no, not for ever. Thou wilt wed--it may be--and when I return--Horror!" He started back, as from a spectre which his imagination had created. "That ring--take it. Let it be thy monitor; and should another seek thy love, look on it; for it shall warn thee. It shall be a silent witness of thy thoughts--one that will watch over thee in my stead; for the genii of that ring," said he, playfully, "are my slaves." But she returned the pledge. "I cannot. Do not wind the links around me thus, lest they gall my spirit; lest I feel the fetters, and wish them broken!" "Then I swear," said Mortimer, vehemently, "no hand but thine shall wear it!" He raised his arm, and the next moment the ring would have been hurled into the gulf, but ere it fell he cast another glance at his mistress. Her heart was full. The emotion she sought to quell quivered convulsively on her lip. He seized her hand; but when he looked again upon the ring it was broken!