and he himself, now
better acquainted with the world than formerly, became aware that his
repeated visits and solitary walks with a person so young and
beautiful as Alice, might not only betray prematurely the secret of his
attachment, but be of essential prejudice to her who was its object.

Under the influence of this conviction, he abstained, for an unusual
period, from visiting the Black Fort. But when he next indulged himself
with spending an hour in the place where he would gladly have abode
for ever, the altered manner of Alice--the tone in which she seemed
to upbraid his neglect, penetrated his heart, and deprived him of
that power of self-command, which he had hitherto exercised in their
interviews. It required but a few energetic words to explain to Alice
at once his feelings, and to make her sensible of the real nature of her
own. She wept plentifully, but her tears were not all of bitterness. She
sat passively still, and without reply, while he explained to her, with
many an interjection, the circumstances which had placed discord between
their families; for hitherto, all that she had known was, that Master
Peveril, belonging to the household of the great Countess or Lady of
Man, must observe some precautions in visiting a relative of the unhappy
Colonel Christian. But, when Julian concluded his tale with the warmest
protestations of eternal love, "My poor father!" she burst forth, "and
was this to be the end of all thy precautions?--This, that the son of
him that disgraced and banished thee, should hold such language to your
daughter?"

"You err, Alice, you err," cried Julian eagerly. "That I hold this
language--that the son of Peveril addresses thus the daughter of your
father--that he thus kneels to you for forgiveness of injuries which
passed when we were both infants, shows the will of Heaven, that in our
affection should be quenched the discord of our parents. What else could
lead those who parted infants on the hills of Derbyshire, to meet thus
in the valleys of Man?"

Alice, however new such a scene, and, above all, her own emotions, might
be, was highly endowed with that exquisite delicacy which is imprinted
in the female heart, to give warning of the slightest approach to
impropriety in a situation like hers.

"Rise, rise, Master Peveril," she said; "do not do yourself and me this
injustice--we have done both wrong--very wrong; but my fault was done in
ignorance. O God! my poor father, who nee