acquaintance like this is not to be measured by hours or minutes. It is a trite saying, and yet how true, that those who are under the influence of a strong emotion may live years in a few heart-beats. "'Please--oh, please don't look so solemn, Mr. Gainsborough! What has happened? I should think, to look at you, that you had been robbed of your diamonds at the very least?' "'No; they are safe enough,' said I, calling up as cheerful a tone and aspect as I could muster, and putting my hand over the inner pocket as I spoke. 'Are you fond of diamonds?' "'Oh, did you ever hear of a girl who wasn't? I think there is nothing so beautiful. Papa has a great many, but he says I mustn't wear them until after I am married. Isn't that hard?' "'But perhaps you think of being married before long?' I inquired, with positively a jealous throb at my heart. "'No; that's the trouble; I know I shall never be married.' These words were uttered in a lower and graver tone, and once more I thought I could discern the flitting traces of that mysterious melancholy. But she brightened up when I said: "'Well, he won't object to your seeing my diamonds, at any rate; not even to your putting them on, perhaps!' "'Just for a minute--may I? that will be splendid! Papa says that some of them are the finest he ever saw.' "'For longer than a minute, Miss Birchmore, if you are willing--I mean if he----' What did I mean, pray? Was I going to make an offer of my hand, heart, and diamonds, on less than an hour's acquaintance, in a railway carriage? and was I going to forget that the diamonds did not belong to me at all, but to my respected mother, who would probably see me cut off with a shilling before granting me the disposal of them? Luckily for my self-possession and self-respect, the train drew up just then at the station known as Krippen, on the bank of the river immediately opposite Schandau. The guard opened the door; we alighted, and the first person we saw was Mr. Birchmore, and close behind him a short, ungainly, beetle-browed fellow, a valet or footman apparently, with a campstool, an umbrella, and a small basket of fruit on his arm. IV.