atch the spray. After some moments she
joined him, and laid her slender fingers on his arm.

"Dear Lennox, I propose at least a temporary change in our relations,
and even at the risk of incurring your displeasure, I prefer to be
perfectly frank. When you asked me to become your wife, neither of us
contemplated the long separation involved in this cruise abroad, which
I ardently desire for many reasons to make; and I am unwilling to
fetter either you or myself by an engagement during my absence. I want
to be entirely free, bound by no promise; and could I ask release,
unless you accepted yours?"

He put his palm under her chin, and lifted the sweet, pure face,
forcing her to return his gaze.

"Have I forfeited your confidence?"

"No. Lennox. I have an indestructible faith in your honor."

Her clear, truthful eyes assured him she acquitted him of all intention
to violate in any jot or tittle the forms of his allegiance.

"You deem me incapable of intentionally betraying your noble trust?"

"I do--indeed I do."

"My peerless Leo, have you ceased to love me?"

She shut her eyes an instant, and the delicate, flower face blanched;
the treacherous lips quivered:

"No."

"Who has supplanted me in your heart, for once I know it was all my
own?"

"Lennox, you are still more to me than all the world beside; but I ask
time, I must be free at present. Let me go away untrammelled; consider
yourself as unfettered, as before our engagement, and when the year
expires, if you deem me absolutely necessary to your happiness, you can
readily ask a renewal of your bonds, and I can be sure by that time
whether my happiness depends upon becoming your wife. After to-day I
shall not wear your ring; and if, while away, I send it back to you,
interpret it as a final decision that in the future we can only be very
faithful and attached friends. I have sadly mistaken your character if
you refuse me release from a compact which I now certainly desire to
cancel."

A shadow fell over his face, and he sighed heavily; but whether the
utterance of regret or relief she never knew.

"Your heart shall no longer be burdened by bonds which I can loosen.
Because your peace and happiness are more to me than my own, I grant
you complete release. When my ring affronts you with disagreeable
memories of a past, which will always be hallowed and precious to me,
as the one beautiful dream that brightened my youth, that crowned me
for a season at le