l me? No; she never did. But all the same I would
pledge my immortal soul upon it that she does."

"Why do you think so, then?"

"Why? Now, Le, where are your eyes and your common sense? I tell you
disgust and abhorrence take possession of Odalite the minute he approaches
her, and stick out all over her like the spikes on a hedgehog. Bah! bah!
Tchut! Tchis!" hissed the intense little creature.

"My Lord, if I thought so!"

"You had better think so. I tell you I believe if she is made to marry
that beat--I mean that person--something awful will happen."

"'Made' to marry, my dear Wynnette! Why, she wants to do so."

"She don't! she don't! she don't!"

"But she told me so herself."

"I don't care what she told you. She don't."

"My dear, please to remember that Odalite never tells what is not true.
And she told me that she wanted to marry Anglesea."

"Yes, I know. She told me so, too, not ten minutes before you came home.
But how can I believe she does when I see that it is breaking her poor
heart, and crazing her brain, and killing her? Tell me that."

"Oh, child! I can tell you nothing!" groaned Le. "I am even more mystified
than you are! That this girl, who is truth itself, should insist that she
wants to marry a man whose very presence fills her with loathing, is a
mystery I cannot fathom!"

The children were by this time seated on a log at the end of the
bridge--the same log on which, two weeks before, Odalite had been seated
when she was surprised by Col. Anglesea.

Le stood near them, leaning with his back against the railings and his
head bowed in deep thought.

Suddenly he started, and threw his hand to his head.

"What's the matter, Le?" inquired little Elva, while Wynnette stared.

"A remembered dream, or vision, that came to me three times on my homeward
voyage," replied the young man, gravely.

"Oh, tell us!" exclaimed both the children in duet, with all their
childish interest in the marvelous excited to the highest pitch.

"It is a vision of midnight on midocean--the blackness of darkness above,
below, around, beneath. Suddenly into this opaque darkness glows a spark
of red light. It increases, spreads, and shoots upward, revealing--a ship
on fire! Showing the deck crowded with dark figures! Only one fearfully
distinct form--the form of Odalite. She stands on the top of the bulwarks,
clothed in white raiment, with her arms raised on high, her face turned
upward, her hair streaming!--fla