ng that even if it had been so, I should have
been more pardonable than many people, on account of the very great
services you have rendered me at various times, and the perils you
have encountered in my behalf. How could I help loving a man who has
twice risked his life for me?"
"Oh, dear Laura," replied Wilton, "those services have been very
small ones, and not worthy of your naming. I certainly did strive to
conceal my love," he continued; "but I believe that, let us struggle
against our feelings as we will, there are always some signs and
tokens which show to the eyes of those we love--if there be any
sympathy between their hearts and ours--that which is passing in
regard to themselves within the most secret places of our bosom.
There is a cabalistic language in love, Laura--unknown to any but
those who really do love, but learnt in a moment, when the mighty
secret is communicated to our hearts. We speak it to each other
without knowing it, dear Laura, and we are understood, without an
effort, if there be sympathy between us."
In such conversation wore the night away, as the carriage wended
slowly onward. Two changes of horses were required to carry Laura and
her lover back to the metropolis, and bells had to be rung, ostlers
and postilions wakened, horses brought slowly forth, and many another
tedious process to be gone through, which had brought the night
nearly to a close, before the carriage crossed the wide extent of
Blackheath, and passed through a small part of the town of Greenwich,
which had then never dreamt of the ambitious project that it has
since achieved, of climbing up that long and heavy hill.
Wilton and Laura had sufficient matter for conversation during the
whole way: for when they had said all that could be said of the
present and the past, there still remained the future to be
considered; and Laura entreated her lover by no precipitate eagerness
to call down upon them opposition, which, if it showed itself of a
vehement kind at first, might only strengthen, instead of diminishing
with time. She besought him to let everything proceed as it had
hitherto done, till his own fate was fully ascertained, and any doubt
of his birth and station in society was entirely removed.
"Till that is the case," she said, "to make any display of our
feelings towards each other might only bring great pain upon us both.
My father might require me not to see you, might positively forbid
our thinking of each other; whereas, were all difficulties on th