smile upon his countenance. The lovers started at the ominous
interruption.

"Begone!" cried Luke.

"Take not that oath," said Peter, "and I leave you. Remember the counsel
I gave you on our way hither."

"What counsel did he give you, Luke?" inquired Sybil, eagerly, of her
lover.

"We spoke of you, fond girl," replied Peter. "I cautioned him against
the match. I knew not your sentiments, or I had spared myself the
trouble. You have judged wisely. Were he to wed you, ill would come of
it. But he _must_ wed another."

"MUST!" cried Sybil, her eyes absolutely emitting sparkles of
indignation from their night-like depths; and, unsheathing as she spoke
the short poniard which she wore at her girdle, she rushed towards
Peter, raising her hand to strike.

"_Must_ wed another! And dare you counsel this?"

"Put up your dagger, fair maiden," said Peter, calmly. "Had I been
younger, your eyes might have had more terrors for me than your weapon;
as it is, I am proof against both. You would not strike an old man like
myself, and of your lover's kin?"

Sybil's uplifted hand fell to her side.

"'Tis true," continued the sexton, "I dared to give him this advice; and
when you have heard me out, you will not, I am persuaded, think me so
unreasonable as, at first, I may appear to be. I have been an unseen
listener to your converse; not that I desire to pry into your
secrets--far from it; I overheard you by accident. I applaud your
resolution; but if you are inclined to sacrifice all for your lover's
weal, do not let the work be incomplete. Bind him not by oaths which he
will regard as spiders' webs, to be burst through at pleasure. You see,
as well as I do, that he is bent on being lord of Rookwood; and, in
truth, to an aspiring mind, such a desire is natural, is praiseworthy.
It will be pleasant, as well as honorable, to efface the stain cast upon
his birth. It will be an act of filial duty in him to restore his
mother's good name; and I, her father, laud his anxiety on that score;
though, to speak truth, fair maid, I am not so rigid as your nice
moralists in my view of human nature, and can allow a latitude to love
which their nicer scruples will not admit. It will be a proud thing to
triumph over his implacable foe; and this he may accomplish----"

"Without marriage," interrupted Sybil, angrily.

"True," returned Peter; "yet not maintain it. May win it, but not wear
it. You have said truly, the house of Rookwood is a fat