contending with her tearful eye, she hid her face in his breast and
murmured, 'I watched him sleeping. Did he indeed dream of me?'

'Darling of my existence!' exclaimed the enraptured Ferdinand,
'exquisite, enchanting being! Why am I so happy? What have I done
to deserve bliss so ineffable? But tell me, beauty, tell me how you
contrived to appear and vanish without witnesses? For my enquiries
were severe, and these good people must have been less artless than I
imagined to have withstood them successfully.'

'I came,' said Miss Temple, 'to pay them a visit, with me not uncommon.
When I entered the porch I beheld my Ferdinand asleep. I looked upon
him for a moment, but I was frightened and stole away unperceived. But I
left the flowers, more fortunate than your Henrietta.'

'Sweet love!'

'Never did I return home,' continued Miss Temple, 'more sad and more
dispirited. A thousand times I wished that I was a flower, that I might
be gathered and worn upon your heart. You smile, my Ferdinand. Indeed I
feel I am very foolish, yet I know not why, I am now neither ashamed nor
afraid to tell you anything. I was so miserable when I arrived home, my
Ferdinand, that I went to my room and wept. And he then came! Oh! what
heaven was mine! I wiped the tears from my face and came down to see
him. He looked so beautiful and happy!'

'And you, sweet child, oh! who could have believed, at that moment, that
a tear had escaped from those bright eyes!'

'Love makes us hypocrites, I fear, my Ferdinand; for, a moment before,
I was so wearied that I was lying on my sofa quite wretched. And then,
when I saw him, I pretended that I had not been out, and was just
thinking of a stroll. Oh, my Ferdinand! will you pardon me?'

'It seems to me that I never loved you until this moment. Is it possible
that human beings ever loved each other as we do?'

Now came the hour of twilight. While in this fond strain the lovers
interchanged their hearts, the sun had sunk, the birds grown silent, and
the star of evening twinkled over the tower of Ducie. The bat and the
beetle warned them to return. They rose reluctantly and retraced their
steps to Ducie, with hearts softer even than the melting hour.

'Must we then part?' exclaimed Ferdinand. 'Oh! must we part! How can
I exist even an instant without your presence, without at least the
consciousness of existing under the same roof? Oh! would I were one of
your serving-men, to listen to your footstep, to