tuary would she find under a
war-encircled banner, should misfortune assail me, and adversity
separate us? Alas, alas!--that is the spell that, like a net cast over
my limbs, makes me feeble and submissive."

"I have not been without my solicitude, Mr. Lindsay, on that subject,"
said Tyrrel. "You yesterday did me the honor to say that my proposal in
regard to Miss Lindsay was not distasteful to you. Could my ardent wish
but be accomplished, she should be placed in safety, assured of ample
and kind protection. If, haply, her thoughts should incline to a
favorable reception of my offer, which I would fain persuade myself her
reverence for you may render not altogether improbable, when she knows
that you deem well of my suit, we might remove her to Charleston, where,
secure amidst assiduous friends, she would pass the brief interval of
alarm, and leave you free to act on this theatre as your honor and duty
may impel you."

"Mildred will not leave me," said Lindsay; "my dear daughter would
suffer a thousand deaths in the anxiety of such a separation."

"Then why not accompany her to Charleston?" asked Tyrrel. "Your presence
there would be equally efficient as at head-quarters--perhaps more so."

"There are other obstacles, Mr. Tyrrel. You talk of Mildred as if her
heart were to be disposed of at my bidding. You do not know her. I have
long struggled to subdue an attachment that has bound her to our worst
enemy, I fear with little success. I have trusted to time to wear out
what I deemed a mere girlish liking; but it seems to me the traces fade
but slowly from her heart."

"I know of whom you speak," said Tyrrel--"that harebrained enthusiast
Butler. It is a freakish and transient passion, and cannot but fall into
forgetfulness. Miss Lindsay has from circumstances been but little
conversant with the world, and, like an inexperienced girl, has fostered
in solitude a romantic affection. That alone should be a motive to
remove her into a busier scene. Besides, this Butler will be himself
forced to give over his hopeless aim--if he has not done so before this:
measures are already taken, and I do not scruple to tell you, at my
instance--to confiscate his lands in Carolina to his majesty's use. The
close of this war will find him penniless, and not unlikely, my dear
sir, I myself may be the possessor of his inheritance--I have some
pledge of the preemption of these lands at a small fee."

"It will win you no favor with Mildr