, and drew me gently away, saying:

"See what a bright star hangs yonder, above the sombre shores!"

I glanced at the glittering point of light, and then, over my shoulder,
at the shadowy decks. The Spaniard was not in sight, and only the bent
figure of the dame was very near.

My dear love raised my fingers to his lips. "Forgive me, sweetheart, for
being so churlish--but you cannot know the fears that fill me when I see
that man's dark face gazing into yours, and realize that we are utterly
in his power."

"Surely he would not harm me!" I said, hastily.

"'Tis that he may learn to love you," said Mr. Rivers gravely.

"He may spare himself the pain of it!" I cried. "Have you not told him
that we are betrothed?"

"Aye, love--but he may lose his heart in spite of that. What wonder if
he does? The miracle would be if he could look upon your face unmoved."

"Am I so wondrous pretty, then?"

"Fairer than any woman living!" he declared. I knew well enough it was a
tender falsehood, but since he seemed to believe it himself it was every
whit as satisfactory as if it had been truth!

"Be comforted," I whispered, reassuringly. "I know very well how to make
myself quite homely. I have only to pull all my curls back from my brow
and club them behind: straightway I will become so old and ugly that no
man would care to look me twice in the face. Wait till to-morrow, and
you will see!"

A laugh broke from Mr. Rivers's lips, and then he sighed heavily.

"Nay, sweetheart, if it be the head-dress you assumed one day some
months ago for my peculiar punishment, I pray you will not try its
efficacy on the Spaniard; for it serves but to make you the more
irresistible."

But already I have dwelt longer upon myself and my own feelings than is
needful for the telling of my tale. I must hasten on to those
happenings that more nearly concerned Mr. Rivers. Yet, in looking
backward, I find it hard to tear my thoughts from the memory of that
last hour of quiet converse with my dear love, under the starlit
southern skies. How seldom we realize our moments of great happiness
until after they have slipped away! It seemed to me then that we were in
the shadow of a dark-winged host of fears; but now I know that it served
only to make our mutual faith burn the more brightly.

I did not, thereafter, neglect Mr. Rivers's warning, and avoided the
Spaniard as much as possible. My dear love lingered always at my elbow,
and replied for me, in