ortune this morning? Why am I alone
excluded?"

"Do you really wish to know?" she said very quietly.

"Of course, or I shouldn't ask!"

"Well then, the reason that I declined to tamper with _your_ destiny is
that I should be irresistibly compelled to tell _you_ the truth!"

"Are you serious, or only--?"

"Am I serious?" she cried, with a wild laugh; "_you_ ask this? The time
has at last come for an explanation. I would willingly have spared you,
but it is in vain that we seek to avoid our fate! Rest here!" and
seizing my wrist, she dragged me down on the fallen trunk of a tree that
lay half hidden by the tall grass at the side of the path. Immediately
behind us was a gloomy wood, choked with rank autumnal growths. A more
dank, unwholesome situation for a seat on a wet day it would be
impossible to conceive. But I preferred running the risk of rheumatic
fever to contradicting Miss Latouche in her present mood. Only I hoped
the explanation would be exceedingly brief.

"You pretend that you never saw me before the other evening?" she began,
feverishly.

"Certainly!" I answered, with great astonishment. "It was undoubtedly
our first meeting. I am sure--"

"Can you swear it?" she interrupted, eagerly.

"Oh, no! I never swear! But I don't mind affirming," I said playfully,
hoping to give a less serious turn to the conversation.

To my horror Miss Latouche wrung her hands with the same expression of
hopeless suffering that I had seen once before.

"It is too cruel," she moaned, "after all this dreary waiting and
watching, to be met like this! Oh, my Beloved! I cannot bear it any
longer! Shall I never find you? Never! never!"

Her voice died away with a sob of despair, which effectually quenched my
capacity for making jokes.

"I hardly understand what you are alluding to," I said as nicely as I
could; "but if you will trust me, I promise to do anything that lies in
my power to help you."

"You promise!" she exclaimed, eagerly. "Mind, you are bound now! Bound
to my service!"

This was taking my polite offer of assistance rather more seriously than
I intended. Muttering some commonplace compliment, I begged to be
further enlightened.

"You will not repeat to any living soul the mysteries I am about to
disclose?" she began. "No, I need not ask! There is already sufficient
sympathy between us for me to be sure of your discretion. But remember,
if you ever feel tempted to disclose a single word of these hidden