be at home or away. He had said
nothing of his coming. This visit was wholly on his own account. He had
walked up and down the piazza two or three times, when through the open
door he caught the flutter of a garment on the stairway. It was
Morgianna's--to whom else could it belong? No dress but hers had such a
flow as that. He gathered up courage and followed it into the hallway.

His darkening the door, into which the sombre shadows of twilight were
already creeping, caused her to look around. "Oh that face! If it hadn't
been for that," thought Fernando, "I could never have faced the Briton.
She is twenty times handsomer than ever. She might marry a Lord!"

He didn't say this. He only thought it--perhaps looked it also.
Morgianna was glad to see him and was _so_ sorry her father was away
from home. Fernando begged she would not worry herself on any account.

Morgianna hesitated to lead the way into the parlor, for there it was
nearly dark. At the same time she hesitated to stand talking in the
hall, which was tolerably light from the open door. They still stood in
the hall in an embarrassing position, Fernando holding her hand in his
(which he had no right to do, for Morgianna had only given it to him to
shake), and yet both hesitated to go or stay anywhere.

"I have come," said Fernando, "to say good-bye--to say good-bye, for I
don't know how many years; perhaps forever. I am going away."

Now this was exactly what he should not have said. Here he was, talking
like a gentleman at large, who was free to come and go and roam about
the world at his pleasure, when he had expressed both in actions and
words that Miss Lane held him in adamantine chains.

Morgianna released her hand and said:

"Indeed!"

She remarked in the same breath that it was a fine night and, in short,
betrayed not the least emotion. With despair still settling over his
heart, Fernando said:

"I couldn't go without coming to see you. I hadn't the heart to."

Morgianna was more sorry than she could tell that he had taken the
trouble. It was a long walk up the hill, and as he was to sail next day,
he must have a deal to do; as if she did not know that he had not
brought even a trunk with him. Then she wanted to know how Mr. Winners
was and Mr. Malone. She thought the Irishman a capital good fellow, and
was sure no one could help liking him.

"Is this all you have to say?" Fernando asked.

All! Good gracious, what did the man expect? She was