eets,
whom he had been forced to carry home; and, as Alina still remained
immoveable, he cried out, stamping with his feet, "Fire, I tell you, in
the devil's name!--tea!--salts!"

At this, the old woman's eyes glared like a cat's, and her nose was lit
up with a brighter phosphorus. She pulled out her huge black snuff-box,
opened it with a tap that sounded again, and took a mighty pinch. Then,
planting an arm in either side, she said with a scoffing tone, "Oh yes,
to be sure, a countess!--a princess! who is found at a poor
bookseller's, who faints in the street! Ho! ho! I know well where such
tricked-out madams are fetched from in the night-time. Here are fine
tricks! here's pretty behaviour! to bring a loose girl into an honest
house; and, that the measure of sin may be quite full, to invoke the
devil on a Christmas night!--and I, too, in my old days am to be
abetting! No, Mr. Tyss--you are mistaken in your person; I am not of
that sort: to-morrow I leave your service."

With this she left the room, and banged the door after her with a
violence that made all clatter again. Peregrine wrung his hands in
despair. No sign of life showed itself in the stranger; but at the
moment when, in his dreadful distress, he had found a bottle of Cologne
water, and was about to rub her temples with it, she jumped up from the
sofa quite fresh and sound, exclaiming, "At last we are alone! At last
I may explain why I followed you to the bookbinder's--why I could not
leave you to-night! Peregrine! give up to me the prisoner whom you have
confined in this room. I know that you are not at all bound to do so; I
know that it only depends upon your goodness; but I know, too, your
kind affectionate heart; therefore, my good, dear Peregrine, give him
up--give up the prisoner!"

"What prisoner?" asked Peregrine, in the greatest surprise. "Who do you
suppose is a prisoner with me?"

"Yes," continued the stranger, seizing Peregrine's hand, and pressing
it tenderly to her breast--"yes, I must confess that only a noble mind
can abandon the advantages which a lucky chance puts into his hands,
and it is true that you resign many things which it would be easy for
you to obtain if you did not give up the prisoner; but--think, that
Alina's destiny, her life, depends upon the possession of this
prisoner, that----"

"Angelic creature!" interrupted Peregrine, "if you don't wish that I
should take it all for a delirious dream, or perhaps become delirious