hing the small parcel she had deposited within a cleft of the hollow
river-side tree, by which they stood, the post-office of their happier
days, where, concealed by thick moss gathered from the bole, those
letters had every one been searched for and found--with what a leap of
heart, first felt! how fondly thrust into her bosom, for the leisure
delight of opening at home--and all in vain!

"All but one," she answered tremulously; "I brought then because you
bade me--but you were so angry _then_--let me take them back?" and she
clutched them eagerly. "At least we may wait, David--we don't know yet;
I do suspect that Lewis Lewis--he shuns me as if he was conscious of
some wickedness; he's as horrid to me as his master--the thought of his
master--I do forbode something awful from that man! It was but just
before I heard you brushing among those great low branches, in your
coracle, that I fancied I saw him stealing, as if to watch, or perhaps
waylay you; but I am full of dismal thoughts."

He had not the heart to force his letters, so reluctantly resigned, from
her chilly hand. But he held in his what was calculated to inspire pain
quite as poignant. In the fond admiration of her fancy's first object,
she had vehemently longed for a portrait of that rather singular face--a
long oval, with lofty forehead, already somewhat corrugated by habits of
deep thought, in his lonely night-loving existence; its mixture of
passion, dumb poetry, its constitutional or adventitious profound
melancholy, ever present, till his countenance gradually lighted up,
after her coming and her animating discourse, like some deep gloomy
valley growing light as the sun surmounts a lofty bank, gleaming through
its pines. She had forced him to take a piece of money for procuring
this so desired keepsake, and every time they met, she had fondly hoped
to have the little portrait put into her hand. Now, instead, he
presented the unused money--would she retain the image of a sweetheart
in the home of her stern and lordly husband? Her heart confessed that
she must no longer wish for it--but it sunk within her at the thought,
how soon that innocent would be a guilty wish; and when he surprised her
with the money so suddenly, she involuntarily shuddered, forebore to
close her hand upon it, let it slide from her palm, and murmured only
with her innocent plaintiff voice, "I shall never have your picture
now--_never_!" And then she dejected her eyes to the little