o! Could it be possible! Was she, while she had
pledged the freshness of her virgin mind to this unknown man, was she,
after all, only a fresh sacrifice to his insatiable vanity! Ferrers a
_roue!_ That lofty-minded man, who spoke so eloquently and so wisely,
was he a _roue,_ an eccentric _roue_; one whose unprincipled conduct
could only be excused at the expense of the soundness of his intellect?
She could not credit it; she would not credit it: and yet his conduct
had been so strange, so mysterious, so unnecessarily mysterious: and
then she recollected his last dark-muttered words: '_You may hear of me,
and not to my advantage._' Oh, what a prophecy! And _from_ him she had
never heard. He had, at least, kept this sad promise. Very sorrowful was
the Consul's daughter. And then she bethought herself of his pledge,
and his honour that had been _never sullied_. She buried her face in her
hands,--she conjured up to her recollection all that had happened since
his arrival, perhaps his fatal arrival, in their island; all he had said
and done, and seemed to think. She would not doubt him. It was madness
for a moment to doubt him. No desolation seemed so complete, no misery
so full of anguish, as such suspicion: she could not doubt him; all her
happiness was hope. A gentle touch roused her. It was her gazelle; the
gazelle that he had so loved. She caressed it, she caressed it for his
sake: she arose and joined her father and Lord Bohun in the garden, if
not light-hearted, at least serene.

CHAPTER VII.

_More Mystery_

THERE must have been something peculiarly captivating in the air of our
island; for Lord Bohun, who, according to his own account, had never
remained in any place a week in the whole course of his life, exhibited
no inclination to quit the city where Major Ponsonby presided over the
interests of our commerce. He had remained there nearly a month,
made himself very agreeable, and, on the whole, was a welcome guest,
certainly with the Consul, if not with the Consul's daughter. As for the
name of Mr. Ferrers, it occasionally occurred in conversation. Henrietta
piqued herself upon the unsuspected inquiries which she carried on
respecting her absent friend. She, however, did not succeed in eliciting
much information. Lord Bohun was so vague, that it was impossible to
annex a precise idea to anything he ever uttered. Whether Ferrers were
rich or poor, really of good family, or, as she sometimes thought, of