ection which Father Ambrose
pointed. She beheld Luke. We know not how to describe the sensations
which now possessed her. She thought not of Ranulph; or, if she did, it
was with vague indifference. Wrapped in a kind of mental trance, she
yielded to the pleasurable impulse that directed her unsettled fancies
towards Luke. For some moments she did not take her eyes from him. The
priest and Mrs. Mowbray watched her in silence.

Nothing passed between the party till Luke joined them. Eleanor
continued gazing at him, and the seeming tenderness of her glance
emboldened Luke to advance towards her. The soft fire that dwelt in
those orbs was, however, cold as the shining wing of the luciola.

Luke approached her; he took her hand--she withdrew it not. He kissed
it. Still she withdrew it not, but gazed at him with gently-glimmering
eyes.

"My daughter is yours, Sir Luke Rookwood," exclaimed Mrs. Mowbray.

"What says the maid herself?" asked Luke.

Eleanor answered not. Her eyes were still fixed on him.

"She will not refuse me her hand," said Luke.

The victim resisted not.

"To the subterranean shrine," cried Barbara. And she gave the
preconcerted signal to the band.

The signal was repeated by the gipsy crew. We may here casually note,
that the crew had been by no means uninterested or silent spectators of
passing events, but had, on the contrary, indulged themselves in a
variety of conjectures as to their probable issue. Several bets were
pending as to whether it would be a match or not after all. Zoroaster
took long odds that the match was off--offering a _bean_ to
_half-a-quid_--in other words, a guinea to a half-guinea--that Sybil
would be the bride. His offer was taken at once by Jerry Juniper, and
backed by the knight of Malta.

"Ha! there's the signal," cried the knight; "I'll trouble you for the
bean."

"And I," added Jerry Juniper, "for another."

"See 'em fairly spliced first," replied the Magus; "that's vot I
betted."

"Vell, vell, a few minutes will settle that. Come, pals, to the autem
ken. Avay. Mind and obey orders."

"Ay, ay," answered the crew.

"Here's a torch for the altar of Hymen," said the knight, flashing his
torch in the eyes of the patrico as he passed him.

"For the halter of Haman, you might say," returned Balthazar, sulkily.
"It's well if some of us don't swing for it."

"You don't say," rejoined the perplexed Magus, "swing! Egad I fear it's
a ticklish business. But there's no