ehensions for her safety, but he soon saw her run back, and,
on observing him coming to meet her, assume an untroubled countenance.
"Has this serene night," said she, "made you too a truant with your
pillow? I have, of late, been little disposed to sleep, and enjoy a
moon-light walk amazingly."--"Do not those dogs annoy you," inquired
Sedley, with more of moody displeasure than tenderness; "I should think
they would form but a harsh response to your soliloquies." She answered,
they did not always discover her, and she ran back when they were
troublesome. Sedley asked her if it would not be better to secure
herself from danger by the protection of a companion. "If you mean to
offer yourself," replied she, "I must say, no. My uncle is constantly
dissuading the villagers from attending night-meetings, which, he says,
though they may be innocent, yet give occasion for reproach; and we must
be careful not to countenance impropriety, by setting an ill example."

"Yet, surely," replied Sedley, "the prudence of these midnight
wanderings is not so unquestionable. Were I of a jealous temper, I might
imagine some presumptuous rival haunted your avenue, and that I even now
detain you from an assignation."

"You will think otherwise," answered she, "when I tell you that I say a
prayer when I quit my uncle's house, and a thanksgiving when I return;
and you know, if my excursion were indecorous, I durst not so tempt
Providence. I ascribe my meeting you to-night to accident, but I will
tell you, dearly as I love you, Arthur, if I thought you watched me from
suspicion of my conduct, I would never speak to you more."

Sedley was awed by the ingenuous resentment which appeared in her
manner. Was it the effrontery of practised perfidy? Impossible! With an
air of pious enthusiasm, she raised her eyes to the clear expanse,
splendidly illuminated by the full-orbed moon and attendant stars, and
clasping her hands in fervour of devotion, besought that Divine
Omniscience, who neither slumbered nor slept, that aweful witness of all
her actions, so to prosper the most ardent desires of her soul, as she
endeavoured to frame them in conformity to his will. "I shall now," said
she, "pursue my walk down the avenue. If you suspect me, follow me,
witness the innocence of my conduct, and forfeit my love. If you confide
in my integrity, return to the house, and never again subject my
reputation to the reproach of being seen with you at night in so lonely