ta, and which she was too happy to impart.

We, however, must follow Captain Fleetwood and Miss Garden. There was
no doubt of their being lovers, by the confiding way in which she rested
on his arm, and glanced up into his face as he spoke; and the look of
proud happiness with which he regarded her, and seemed to defy the world
to venture on the experiment of tearing her from him. Everybody
observed it but Colonel Gauntlett, and he remained obstinately blind to
what had taken place.

"My beloved Ada, this is the last time that I may have an opportunity of
speaking to you," said Fleetwood, as, the dance being over, he led her
to an open balcony which looked out on the moonlit harbour. "You know
how ardently I love you, and that willingly would I sacrifice all the
prospect of your uncle's property, if he would give his consent to our
union; but I would not urge you to act in opposition to his wishes--yet
there is a time when obedience ceases to be a duty, and that time must
come when he obstinately refuses to give you to me."

"He will not, he cannot do so, when he knows how dearly, how deeply you
love me." She spoke according to the dictates of her own heart; nor was
she, however, wrong.

"Then this very night, or to-morrow morning, before you sail, I will ask
you from him, and as soon as I pay off the _Ione_, which I shall
probably do in the course of two months, I will come back and claim you.
Shall I do so, dearest?"

"Oh, yes! do, Charles. It is the only way, and, believe me, whatever is
the result, I will be faithful to you. While you claim me, I will never
marry another."

"I cannot ask more, and yet I could not demand less without
contemplating an event which would wring my heart with anguish,"
exclaimed Fleetwood, pressing her hand to his lips. "I think, however,
we may before that time again meet--I expect to be sent to Greece, and
shall contrive to visit Cephalonia."

For some time longer the lovers talked on without taking note of its
flight, when they were disagreeably interrupted by the voice of the
colonel inquiring for Ada.

"Come here, miss," he exclaimed. "Here has been Prince Caramitzo
waiting for the last quarter of an hour to lead you out to dance, and
you were nowhere to be found--I will not have it." And he looked a
black thundercloud at Fleetwood. "Come, _Signior Principe_, there is
your partner ready for you."

The prince, comprehending his meaning more by his action than his