the dawn, that thy sweet voice thrills through my frame, and
but the slightest touch of that light hand falls like a spell on my
entranced form! Ah! Henrietta, be merciful, be kind!'

He paused for a second, and yet she did not answer; but her cheek fell
upon his shoulder, and the gentle pressure of her hand was more eloquent
than language. That slight, sweet signal was to him as the sunrise on
the misty earth. Full of hope, and joy, and confidence, he took her in
his arms, sealed her cold lips with a burning kiss, and vowed to her his
eternal and almighty love!

He bore her to an old stone bench placed on the terrace. Still she was
silent; but her hand clasped his, and her head rested on his bosom. The
gleaming moon now glittered, the hills and woods were silvered by its
beam, and the far meads were bathed with its clear, fair light. Not a
single cloud curtained the splendour of the stars. What a rapturous soul
was Ferdinand Armine's as he sat that night on the old bench, on
Ducie Terrace, shrouding from the rising breeze the trembling form of
Henrietta Temple! And yet it was not cold that made her shiver.

The clock of Ducie Church struck ten. She moved, saying, in a faint
voice, 'We must go home, my Ferdinand!'

BOOK III.

CHAPTER I.

_In Which Captain Armine Proves Himself a Complete
Tactician_.

THE midnight moon flung its broad beams over the glades and avenues of
Armine, as Ferdinand, riding Miss Temple's horse, re-entered the park.
His countenance was paler than the spectral light that guided him on his
way. He looked little like a pledged and triumphant lover; but in his
contracted brow and compressed lip might be read the determination
of his soul. There was no longer a contest between poverty and pride,
between the maintenance or destruction of his ancient house, between his
old engagement and his present passion; that was past. Henrietta Temple
was the light in the pharos amid all his stormy fortunes; thither he
directed all the energies of his being; and to gain that port, or sink,
was his unflinching resolution.

It was deep in the night before he again beheld the towers and turrets
of his castle, and the ivy-covered fragment of the old Place seemed
to sleep in peace under its protecting influence. A wild and beautiful
event had happened since last he quitted those ancient walls. And what
would be its influence upon them? But it is not for the passionate lover
to moralise.