ave to ask you if you
will do me the extreme favor of sitting at table with me at a repast
which you will doubtless be surprised to learn has been hastily
prepared entirely in your honor."

So saying, and giving Jonathan no time for reply, she offered him her
hand, and with the most polite insistence conducted him into an
exquisitely appointed dining room adjoining.

Here stood a table covered with a snow-white cloth, and embellished
with silver and crystal ornaments of every description. Having seated
herself and having indicated to Jonathan to take the chair opposite to
her, the two were presently served with a repast such as our hero had
not thought could have existed out of the pages of certain
extraordinary Oriental tales which one time had fallen to his lot to
read.

This supper (which in itself might successfully have tempted the taste
of a Sybarite) was further enhanced by several wines and cordials
which, filling the room with the aroma of the sunlit grapes from which
they had been expressed, stimulated the appetite, which without them
needed no such spur. The lady, who ate but sparingly herself,
possessed herself with patience until Jonathan's hunger had been
appeased. When, however, she beheld that he weakened in his attacks
upon the dessert of sweets with which the banquet was concluded, she
addressed him upon the business which was evidently entirely occupying
her mind.

"Sir," said she, "you are doubtless aware that every one, whether man
or woman, is possessed of an enemy. In my own case I must inform you
that I have no less than three who, to compass their ends, would gladly
sacrifice my life itself to their purposes. At no time am I safe from
their machinations, nor have I any one," cried she, exhibiting a great
emotion, "to whom I may turn in my need. It was this that led me to
hope to find in you a friend in my perils, for, having observed through
my agents that you are not only honest in disposition and strong in
person, but that you are possessed of a considerable degree of energy
and determination, I am most desirous of imposing upon your good-nature
a trust of which you cannot for a moment suspect the magnitude. Tell
me, are you willing to assist a poor, defenceless female in her hour of
trial?"

"Indeed, friend," quoth Jonathan, with more vivacity than he usually
exhibited, with a lenity to which he had heretofore in his lifetime
been a stranger--being warmed into such a spirit, dou