we, oh! must we indeed part?'

'It is too cruel,' continued Lady Armine, kissing with a thousand kisses
her weeping child. 'What have I done to deserve such misery as this?
Ferdinand, beloved Ferdinand, I shall die.'

'I will not go, mother, I will not go,' wildly exclaimed the boy,
disengaging himself from her embrace and starting up in his bed.
'Mother, I cannot go. No, no, it never can be good to leave a home like
this.'

'Hush! hush! my darling. What words are these? How unkind, how wicked
it is of me to say all this! Would that I had not come! I only meant
to listen at your door a minute, and hear you move, perhaps to hear you
speak, and like a fool,--how naughty of me! never, never shall I forgive
myself-like a miserable fool I entered.'

'My own, own mother, what shall I say? what shall I do? I love you,
mother, with all my heart and soul and spirit's strength: I love you,
mother. There is no mother loved as you are loved!'

''Tis that that makes me mad. I know it. Oh! why are you not like
other children, Ferdinand? When your uncle left us, my father said,
"Good-bye," and shook his hand; and he--he scarcely kissed us, he was so
glad to leave his home; but you-tomorrow; no, not to-morrow. Can it be
to-morrow?'

'Mother, let me get up and call my father, and tell him I will not go.'

'Good God! what words are these? Not go! 'Tis all your hope to go; all
ours, dear child. What would your father say were he to hear me speak
thus? Oh! that I had not entered! What a fool I am!'

'Dearest, dearest mother, believe me we shall soon meet.'

'Shall we soon meet? God! how joyous will be the day.'

'And I--I will write to you by every ship.'

'Oh! never fail, Ferdinand, never fail.'

'And send you a gazelle, and you shall call it by my name, dear mother.'

'Darling child!'

'You know I have often stayed a month at grand-papa's, and once six
weeks. Why! eight times six weeks, and I shall be home again.'

'Home! home again! eight times six weeks; a year, nearly a year! It
seems eternity. Winter, and spring, and summer, and winter again, all to
pass away. And for seventeen years he has scarcely been out of my sight.
Oh! my idol, my beloved, my darling Ferdinand, I cannot believe it; I
cannot believe that we are to part.'

'Mother, dearest mother, think of my father; think how much his hopes
are placed on me; think, dearest mother, how much I have to do. All now
depends on me, you know. I must restore our hou